Cobalt Army
by firerwolf
Summary: Picks up at the end of Reconstruction. Church has gained a new body and his taking his chances with becoming a real soldier. Rated for foul language, as is to be expected. Please R&R.
1. The start

A/N: I don't own Church, RvB, or anything from Halo. Please bear with me on some of the details. I know it seems a bit unlikely but this is the RvB world.

Chapter 1

Church still couldn't believe what had happened. When the EMP went off, the pulse destroyed all the AI stored in the facility—that is, all that the Meta hadn't already grabbed. Main had apparently made a stop at one of the storage banks and, judging by the number of AIs that Church found in the Freelancer's head had cleaned it out. But on the AIs inside the Meta's armor, it didn't' have the desired effect. The EMP shut down the base but it didn't destroy the AIs in the Meta as Wash had expected. To this day Church still didn't fully understand what had happened. It had all happened in a flash, as it usually is with AIs. But it seemed that when presented with the Alpha the fragmented AI couldn't help but try to fuse with it. Before Church could stop them the AI were trying to rejoin with him. He tried to retreat away but he couldn't just get out of the Meta's armor. He was desperate to get out and, without even knowing he was doing it, he used the Meta's radio to escape, taking the other AIs with him. The sudden shock of all those minds leaving his head destroyed Maine's mind.

By the time the EMP went off, Church and the AIs were gone.

When Church came back into consciousness, existence, awareness, whatever you would call it, it was all over. The thing was he didn't feel any different. It seemed that the AIs' attempt to fuse with him hadn't worked. Instead Church was left himself, separate, while the other AIs had fused into one.

After about a month of leaving Church and the combined AI in waiting they had decided what to do. From what he understood he didn't really hold any use for the Freelancer project. The decision had been made, supposedly by the highest rankers of the Freelancer program. Church always wondered if _he_ had been a part of the decision.

Now Church sat marveling. He held up his hand and looked at it. It was real, solid, and his. He had been given a body cloned from the Director, whose mind he was made from. They had officially given him the name Leonard Church, and named the fused AIs Alpha.

They had given Leonard full freedom to decide what he wanted to do. It seemed that without his computer skills as an AI he wasn't as much use to the military, and since he was considered completely human, he was given that choice.

He had thought about it for a long time and had come to one conclusion. He didn't have a home or any reason to leave. He decided to stay and fight. The problem was he didn't have any real training. Whatever training the simulation soldiers had gone through didn't count, and he couldn't even remember going through it. He'd probably just been dropped into a unit without any training at all.

So here he was on his way to basic training. The security straps pushed against him as the pelican moved through the sky. It was hard to even hear himself think over the roar of the engines.

The marine beside him looked at Church, confused. "Why are you staring at your hand?" he asked. "You look like you've never seen it before." He asked.

"You could say something like that," Church replied as he looked over at the marine. His black hair was freshly cut to regulation length and his green eyes had a hint of warmth to them. "I'm Leonard Church."

"Steve, Steve Fisher," the other marine replied, holding out his hand. Church shook his hand. "Are you excited?"

Church frowned at the question. "Excited isn't the word I would use." Fisher just looked at him confused as their pelican landed.

For the next six weeks Church and the other marines were drilled in all forms of combat. They learned to use all kinds of weapons, learning all the protocol for every situation. The sergeants even took the time to teach them a few stealth techniques.

Leonard threw himself into his training full force. He spent extra time exercising, at the shooting range, and could be found reading up on the strategies of some of the military legends. He and Steve became good friends over the course of their training , forming a healthy rivalry. They would try to outdo each other, though Church seemed to win most of the time. After two weeks of extra practice on the range Church finally mastered the aiming on the sniper rifle. The effort showed and the sergeants took notice. He found himself as team leader often and as long as he wasn't competing against Fisher he was usually the victor. After what seemed like an eternity of drill after drill the soldiers officially finished their training.

Church had just finished packing up the rest of his belongings. He stood in the empty barracks looking around at all of the neatly made cots. Just hours ago the room had been filled with soldiers packing up. Church had hung back, just enjoying the good feeling of having finished his training. Once everyone had cleared out he had packed up his own things. He turned sharply as another person entered the room. Leonard snapped to attention and saluted the figure. "Sir."

"As you were, soldier," the sergeant ordered. Church relaxed. The CO looked around the barracks before looking back at Leonard. "Packed and ready marine?"

"Yessir," Church replied. "I just got my orders a moment ago. I'm being sent to a base on Chi Rho. It seems there are some loyalists hiding there."

"I'm sure you'll be able to handle it," the sergeant assured him. "It was a pleasure training you, soldier. When you came here you were weak, undisciplined and a poor excuse for a soldier. Now, I'm proud to call you a marine." He held his hand out to Church.

Leonard smiled and shook the Sergeant's hand. "Thank you, sir. I was just lucky to have soldiers like you to teach me." He looked down at his hand as the sergeant pulled his hand away. He looked at the object that the CO had passed him.

"Good luck, Corporal. I hope you won't need it," the sergeant said before he left the room.

"Thank you, sir." Church looked down at the corporal insignia in his hand and smiled. He slipped it into his pocket and grabbed his bag. He headed out to the waiting pelicans with an odd feeling of accomplishment for his new rank. He was to board Pelican-66, which would take him up to the ship called _Bloody Blade_. Church spotted his pelican and smirked at the sight. A soldier had painted a third 6 on the side of the ship along with a crudely drawn devil.

Steve stood outside the pelican motioning him to hurry. Church picked up his pace. "What took you so long?" Steve aksed, grinning. "We've been waiting."

"I'm sure that this bird would wait for me," Church said as he and Steve walked to the back of the ship. Leonard tossed his bag up to the waiting soldier, who stored it away. Leonard and Steve then boarded the ship.

A marine in flight gear who was standing inside the entrance to the ship motioned to them when they entered. "And you are…?"

"Private Steve Fisher," Steve replied.

"Corporal Leonard Church," Church answered.

The soldier nodded and motioned to the seats inside the ship. "Take a seat, sir, and strap in." Church and Fisher sat down and strapped themselves in as the other marines closed the rear doors of the ship.

"So, Corporal, does this mean I have to call you sir?" Steve asked.

Church smirked at him. "Depends on my mood, and our CO," Church replied with a slight laugh.

Steve leaned back against in his seat. "Twenty bucks says our new CO is going to be a hard-ass."

"I'm smart enough to know that is not something you bet on, that is fact," Church replied as the pelican flared to life and rose up out of the atmosphere.

~End Chapter 1~

A/N: Well there is chapter 1. Please read and comment. Your feedback matters to me.


	2. Victoria

A/N: I don't own anything from RvB or Halo. If I did then Church would have shot his team and gone of to be kick ass a long time ago. Well here is chapter 2.

Chapter 2

2years later

Humans were so quick to return to the old ways. So quick that it almost made Church sick. Victoria had always had problems with rebels. Before the great war it had been home to the United Rebel Front. It seemed like as soon as word that the Ark was destroyed had reached the planet that the rebels sprung back up. The UNSC personnel on the planet were mostly just there to help the people fix up what little of the planet that hadn't been glassed. How did those people repay the UNSC? By rebelling against them with rockets and guns. Now the UNSC personnel were trapped on the planet under siege.

A military base called Reborn Hope was the main problem. Thousands of UNSC staff had taken refuge there while hundreds of rebels keeping them there. Now it was time for the soldiers to step in. The rebels wouldn't just let the UNSC pull out its people. The wanted them to surrender but the higher ups refused. As Steve had put it "they didn't fight off extinction from an alien army to loose to some human rebels." So in the end it all came down to pride. This wasn't exactly what Church had signed up for or was use to but it was better then Blood Gulch.

Church was brought back to the present as a voice came over the radio. "Have fun down there CSs. Their rocket fire makes it to dangerous for out pelicans. You'll be on your own down there." The voice said.

"Understood Captain." Church replied. He then felt a bump and the sudden feeling of falling as his SOEIV was released from the ship. The heavy beats of metal music filled the radio. The soldiers had long ago decided on the song as their personal anthem. It had taken almost four months but the team had finally gotten their hands on a cover version of Disturbed's Meaning of Life. The song had been redone by a band called Captain Dynamic. A name that was supposedly chosen due to the live action internet series that put the Rooster Teeth on the map. Before the series they had only done series with old video games but once they had started the live action series the company became a major corporation. About half of the universe's economy was made up of the company as was evident form the Rooster Teeth logo on all of the UNSC's electrical equipment. Church felt a lurch as his drag chute opened to slow his fall a bit and a moment later the retro rockets fired to finish the job. He waited until he felt the final thump as his SOEIV hit the ground. He raised his battle rifle sweeping the area for enemies but found none. When he was sure the area was clear he jumped out of the pod. He grabbed his sniper rifle and his grenades. He then moved out into the forest and to the marked point on his HUD. He felt a bit odd running around in full armor. When he had asked for new armor for the team he hadn't expected what he got. He had expected to be given the standard armor not full sets of MJOLNIR armor. He had taken full advantage of the fact that the armor's different forms parts could be switched out. He had a mainly steel colored suit of armor. The helmet was ODST with a stripe of cobalt down the center. He had replaced his shoulder pieces with the cobalt shoulder pieces of HAYABUSA armor while the chest plate had been replaced by a steel colored chest plate from a set off CQB armor.

Church made his way down the dried up river to the former lake bed that was the rendezvous point. When he reached the end of the river he found three soldiers waiting for him. Joe, Natalie, and Tricia were waiting for him. Their steel colored helmets turned to him. They had the same CQB chest plate as him but their shoulders were covered by steel scout armor with a stripe of cobalt stripe. Church hoped the rest of his soldiers had a good reason for not being there before him. His pod ad been the furthest from the point yet he had reached it before them. Andrew, Lorie, Keith, and Steve arrived a minute later.

"Sorry sir, the hatch of my SOEIV wouldn't open." Andre explained.

"And it took all of you to get it open?" Church asked the other three.

"His pod went too far down. The hatch was stuck in the dirt. It took all of us to get it open, sir." Steven replied.

"Very well then, just get ready. As soon as the others arrived we are moving out." Church said.

It was another 5 minutes before the remaining 4 soldiers arrived. "What took you so long, Allison?" Steve asked the soldier who was leading the group.

"Bite me mutt." Alison shot back as she, Douglas, Brandon and Paul joined the others.

"Let's try that again." Church cut in. "What took you so long, Corporal?" He asked.

"You're going to like this, sir. We spotted a couple vehicles of rebel soldiers. They aren't very organized and have left themselves rather vulnerable. They may have the fire power but not the brains to use it." Allison reported.

Church paused to think over their next move. "Alright, gather round, here is the plan." He said as the team gathered around him.

The two trucks of soldiers drove down the dusty roads kicking up dust and rocks behind them. The passenger sat with his arm leaning on the window sill, assault rifle lying in his lap. The radio buzzed with the word of their leader. "No longer will the iron fist of the UNSC crush us. We shall escape the suffocating grip of the uncaring Earth politicians." The voice said.

The driver slowed the truck and the passenger turned toward him. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"There's something in the middle of the road." The driver replied as he stopped the truck. "What the hell is that?"

The truck behind them stopped and both the passenger and the driver got out to see what was wrong.

The passenger got out. He moved toward the object carefully. Joe lay in the middle of the road. Hidden in the trees around the road the rest of blue team were at the ready. Church could feel a bit of tension in the air around him. His team was nervous and he could feel it on his skin. They had spent the last 2 years fighting brutes, not humans. As soon as the trucks stopped Church and Steve moved forward. Church moved to the back of the first van while Steve went to the second. They tossed smoke grenades into the back of the trucks before retreating back to the woods. After a second of panic the grenades went off filling the back of the trucks with smoke. The rebel soldiers hurried out of the back of the trucks most of them to occupied with clearing the smoke from their lungs to raise their rifles to protect themselves. Three cracks were heard as three sniper rounds found their way to the skull of the two drives and second passenger. The rest of blue team opened fire into the rebel soldiers cutting them down in a matter of minutes.

As soon as the grenades had gone off Joe went into action. He rolled over and grabbed the rebel's rifle, pointing it at the ground. He then grabbed the man's wrist and brought his fist up to hit the man in the chest. He then flipped over the rifle and fired a three round burst into the rebel.

Once the soldiers had finished off the last of the rebels Church looked over the damage. There had been 5 soldiers in the back of each of the tucks leaving 14 dead. Church didn't like the idea or sight of dead humans but they had chosen this fate not him. His team unassembled the rifles, as they had learned in basic, and checked over the trucks. They had little damage from the grenades and were almost completely clear of smoke.

"We're ready to move out, sir." Steve reported.

"Alright Corporal, then lets go raise some hell." Church said as he moved into the driver's seat of the first truck and Steve took the second. Three marines moved into the back of the trucks and they headed out.

Allison frowned at the sight before her. She and black team were hidden at the edge of the rebel's camp outside the military base. Their ammunition ten was basically unguarded. The problem was that the camp was crawling with rebels. There was no way for them to get in without being caught.

Suddenly the rebels started to all turn in the same direction as a pair of trucks came barreling down the road to the camp. "There's your diversion." Allison announced to her team. She then motioned tem forward. "You always come though for us, Leonard." Allison muttered to herself as she moved forward into the camp. Black team set up explosives in the ammunition tent. They then exited the tent moving through the camp back out into the forest. Once they were clear Allison activated the explosives. The tent went up in flames as the explosives started a chain reaction as it hit the supply of rockets and mines that the rebels had. The trucks continued through the camp, marines firing out of the back. Church and Steve brought the trucks to a stop and exited the driver's seat. The marines jumped out of the back of the trucks and started to take out rebels. Faced with the sight of 8 fully MJOLNIR armor soldiers many of the rebels turned and ran not willing to take the chance. In a matter of minutes it was all over. Black team had joined in and the rebels were done for. Church had taken the time to capture the leader of the rebels. The marines stood in the destroyed camp looking at the captured rebels. Church was waiting for the commander of the base to come out.

Steve stood watching over the prisoners. "I can't believe that you thought you could beat us. No one beats the cobalt army." Steve taunted.

"Would you shut it dumb ass." Allison snapped form her spot beside Church.

"I'll shut it when you stop being a bitch." Steve shot back.

"That's not going to happen. I think there's something about the name Allison and having to be a bitch." Church cut in. He flinched a bit as Allison's fist met his shoulder. "Oh you know it's true."

The conversation ended as the commander of the base came out to talk to them. Once Church had sorted everything out, called for a pelican, and handed over the prisoners his team reassembled. "So where to next? More rebels somewhere else on this crap planet?" Steve asked.

"No, we're being moved to a different system. Some sort of guard duty for some event." Church replied. "Think of it as a vacation." He said as the pelican arrived. The team boarded and strapped in.

"Anything is better then killing humans. I'll be more then happy to go back to brutes." Keith commented.

"Got that right." Natalie agreed as the others nodded and the pelican rose.

~End chapter 2~

A/N: Well there is chapter 2. Please read and review.


	3. New Mission

A/N: I don't own anything from RvB or Halo.

Chapter 3

Leonard had underestimated how boring their next mission was. The cobalt army, as his team was called, was sent to New Jerusalem. He stood on the ships bridge waiting for the captain to speak to him. He didn't have long to wait as the young captain walked over to him. Leonard saluted the man standing up taller.

"As you were." The captain ordered. "I brought you here to talk about your next mission."

"About that sir, it seems like my team is a bit excessive for something like this." Leonard said frowning. "Is there something we are not being told?"

The captain turned to Leonard and smiled. "Not exactly Staff Sergeant." He replied turning to the holo-pad beside him. It came to life and a glowing transparent blue version of a military uniformed Leonard appeared. He looked similar to the soldier yet a bit older. "There are rumors of a rebellion here." The captain continued. "This is also a rather high profile group of people, very likely to be attacked. That and we promised them the best protection." The captain explained. "You'll take Alpha so that we can keep in contact with you no matter what."

"Are you sure that is a good idea sir?" Leonard asked looking to the hologram.

"I agree, it seems a bit risky." The AI agreed. It send a slight chill down Leonard's spine to hear his voice saying words that weren't his.

"It's the only reasonable action. We have no other AI on board. I'm not asking you to let him into your head, just your armor." The captain replied.

"Yessir." Leonard said moving to the holo-pad. He was a bit afraid of what would happen when the AI joined him. They had been kept apart since the incident with the EMP.

"That is not necessary." Alpha said stopping Leonard in his tracks. The hologram vanished and Leonard felt the sensation of liquid mercury wash over his mind. "Feels like coming home." Alpha commented. Leonard frowned at the words. They seemed to be nothing but thoughts in his head but they were not his own. He guessed it was what people who heard voices felt like.

"You alright soldier?" The captain asked a bit concerned.

"Yessir, no problems." Leonard replied, which was basically true. So far it was better then any other time he had had contact with an AI.

"Very well then, gather your team. Your charges will be waiting for you in conference room B." Leonard nodded and after saluting one last time exited the bridge.

Leonard navigated his way through the ship's hallways to his team's quarters. He frowned at the sight that met him. "We've been here to long." He muttered to himself. On the door to his team's quarters someone had painted on a light blue CA. He tapped the control pad and the door slid open. His team lay on their cots looking exhausted. They were supposed to have only been on the ship for 2 weeks but it turned into 5 when the group they were to guard kept pushing back the date. Leonard had taken advantage of the free time for his team to train. They kept to a regular work out schedule every day taking full advantage of the full gym on the ship. They had also used the time to get use to the MJOLNIR armor. They hadn't known the full potential of the armor the first time they had used them. They had thought the armor was only for protection but it was more. They hadn't known that it would increase their speed and strength. They were more then pleased with that. With only days of practice they were able to work with the armor as a second skin. IN a way Leonard was grateful for the delay. They wouldn't have gotten the training time if everything had gone as planned.

Leonard moved to his own cot in the corner of the room. "Gear up to head out." He ordered. The marines sprang to action moving to the walls. They used special panels built into the wall that popped out when they neared them revealing their weapons. A couple of them pulled cases out from under their cots and began to assemble their sniper rifles. Leonard turned to glare at the soldiers. "What dumb ass gave you paint?" He asked them reaching back and removing his M90 Assault Shotgun from the wall. On its side was painted a cobalt stripe.

"We got back early from training, found some paint, and figured the world should know our weapons from others." Allison explained.

Leonard took a deep breath and calmed himself. "I'll deal with this later. Now we have baby sitting duty." Leonard said before pulling a case out form under his cot. He set it on the cot and opened it up. In a matter of seconds he had his SRS99D-S2AM sniper rifle assembled. He noted that it had a cobalt stripe down its side as well. He decided to let it go and made his way through the door at the back of the room. It lead to the locker room that is team used to change into their armor. Leonard quickly stripped out of his uniform and changed into his armor.

"This is much better. Though it is much smaller then the ship's computers." Alpha said aloud as he adjusted to the new equipment.

The rest of the team turned to their CO. Alpha's voice was exactly the same as Leonard and it threw them off. "Alpha's coming with us." Leonard explained. That seemed to be enough of an explanation for the team and they returned to suiting up. Leonard slung his sniper rifle over his back and stocked up on ammunition and grenades. He felt like he wouldn't need them but he didn't want to be caught off guard. "Steel team, Sapphire team, you'll make your way up to the docking bay. Cobalt team you're with me. We'll go get the civilians." He instructed.

Leonard led Keith and Natalie down the hallways to conference room B. He opened the door and was not happy with the sight before him. In the conference room stood 1 woman in a lab coat and 5 people in suits. They looked to be business men, the kind Leonard didn't like, the kind that cared more about profits then people. "Just great." He said with a sigh. After the enhances speed and strength Leonard's favorite feature of his armor was that they could talk over the radio without others hearing. It allowed his team to look official at all times but still hold conversations as they liked to. Leonard was at least glad they weren't all business people. He stepped forward and spoke to the civilians. "I am Staff Sergeant Leonard Church. We will be your protection for this trip."

One of the business men scoffed. "We ask for the best and instead we get three snipers in mismatched armor."  
"With all due respect we are the best." Leonard corrected. "The rest of your escort is in the docking bay checking over our pelican and preparing for any threats." He explained.

"I told you that the UNSC was taking this seriously." One of the other business men said. "Though it's probably more so because they don't want to risk Mrs. Oran then they want to protect us." The woman in the lab coat glared at him. "Oh you know it is true."

"Can we just get moving? I'm bored with this room." A third business man said.

"Yessir, just follow me." Leonard instructed. He moved out of the room and the 6 civilians followed. Keith and Natalie followed behind the group.

The two soldiers opened a personal radio channel between the three of them. "Why are there this many representatives from companies here?" Keith asked.

"And why would they need a scientist?" Natalie added.

"My guess would be that they are here to survey for development. The scientist would know the best geological sights." Leonard replied.

"But that is ridiculous." Keith said surprised. "The planet is still filled with refugees from the war. There is no place to build."

"There's plenty of forest for them to destroy and build on." Leonard said disgusted. "The Covenant never found this planet so it was never touched."

"That will kill their tourist industry though. People only come here for the natural beauty." Keith countered.

"Yeah but the people here aren't thinking about that. They'll see it as jobs, something they need." Natalie inserted. "They won't care what it does to their planet, even more if they aren't planning on staying here."

"Didn't we learn that kind of attitude is wrong from Earth like 500 years ago?" Keith asked.

"In times of strife humans think more of the present and little of the future and are more willing to make the mistakes of the past even though they remember the events." Leonard commented.

The others fell silent for a moment. "That was oddly deep and well spoken, sir. Are you sure that you're our Sergeant?" Keith asked.

"Shut it smart ass before I make you wait in the ship when we get to the planet." Leonard snapped.

"Shutting up sir." Keith replied bluntly.

"Smart man." Leonard commented as the door slid open to the docking bay. He lead the group down to the pelican that had long ago been designated to his team. He glanced at the recently repainted third 6 and the cobalt UNSC eagle that had been spray painted on.

Allison and Steve approached them. "Sir, Sapphire team is ready to head out." Steve reported.

"Steel team is ready as well, sir." Allison added.

"Do these soldiers not know how to be color coordinated?" The first businessman complained. Leonard guessed the man was referring to the recent change in their armor colors. It had been one of Steve's ideas but Allison had worked it into a more reasonable idea. Steve had originally proposed that they wear armor that matched their team names with cobalt as their detail color. The idea almost died after Allison pointed out it would confuse people who were already familiar with their steel armor and make them look as though they were three different squads instead of one. They had instead gone with Allison's compressed idea. Steel was still there primary color with cobalt as their detail color but their secondary color now matched their team names.

"Good, then we're ready to head out." Leonard said choosing not to acknowledge the man's words. This was why he hated protecting civilians. They had no respect and he wasn't allowed to hit them. "Please board the ship." He said to the civilians.

"Of course Sergeant." The scientist said pleasantly before boarding the ship. She took a seat in one of the vacant spots beside the already boarded marines. She seemed quite at home beside the armored soldiers. The rest of the civilians boarded the ship trying to sit as far away from the marines as possible. Leonard closed and sealed the rear hatch and then gave the pilot the go ahead. He sat down as the pelican took off and moved out of the docking bay and toward the planet.

~End chapter 3~

A/N:Please read and reply. Your feedback does matter to me.


	4. return of the idiots

A/N: I don't own anything from Halo or Red vs Blue.

Chapter 4

She didn't think she'd be back in the army again. They had told her that she was to go home, even gave her a real body, not another robot. Why though was she stuck on New Jerusalem doing relief work? Sure it was a nice planet, very beautiful and their base was basically one big garden and a building filled with crap. She didn't mind the area and the peacefulness of the mission but she just wasn't use to it. The more important question though was how had she gotten stuck with these idiots again? "Tucker get off your lazy ass." She snapped.

"Calm down Tex, I've got Caboose doing my work. He's doing a fine job." The soldier said causally.

The rock hit its mark as it slammed into the side of Tucker's head. "That's not the point. I told you to wait in the landing field for the pelican that is supposed to come. There are important people aboard. I gave you the easiest job on the whole planet and you still won't do it." Tex said glaring down at him. "Beside, Caboose has his own work to do. Hell, Grif is more useful then you."

"All he does is man the radio and make out with Simmons in the communications room." Tucker complained. "That isn't hard…well the Simmons part would be for me."

"Nether is standing in the field. Beside, we can't claim that those two are doing that until one of us actually catches them in action." Tex shot back grabbing another rock. Tucker stood up not wanting to be hit again. "Better, but still not good enough."

"Fine, I'm going to the field." Tucker relented turning and moving toward the field.

"Um, I was told to tell you when the ship came. Well it's coming." Caboose said over the radio.

"Thank you Caboose." Tex said before switching to the channel the whole base used. "All free personnel are to report to field C." She announced before turning to Tucker. "Come on, let's get moving."

"Whatever." Tucker muttered before following Tex to the field. When they reached the field a good number of soldiers had gathered around the landing area. Tucker moved to stand beside Caboose and Sister along with the reds from Blood Gulch. The pelican circled and then landed in the center of the field. The back hatch opened and sapphire team walked down the ramp. They stopped at the base of the ram and stood to either side as the civilians made their way down the ramp. Cobalt and Steel team followed behind them ever scanning the area for danger.

"Now that is cool." Sister commented. "That armor is awesome, and hot."

"You know I have to agree. It makes me miss my old armor." Tucker said. "Though I've never seen armor like that. Check out the guy with the weird shoulder armor." He said motioning to the HAYABUSA shoulder armor.

"Sweet nibblits that's a nice shotgun." Sarge said, though most people were calling him Corp due to his recent demotion. "Makes me miss mine."

"I miss having weapons at all." Grif commented dryly. "Why do they get weapons and we don't?"

"Because we're on a peaceful planet and they've seen actual combat." Simmons answered.

"Oh I hope they will be my friend." Caboose said happily.

"Quiet, all of you." Tex snapped angrily. She turned as the civilians and the leader of the marines neared her. When she noticed the Staff Sergeant insignia painted on the armor she snapped a salute. "Sir, welcome to base Eternal Bliss. Sergeant Allison Hendson at your service." She said.

"Well we're very happy to be here." The scientist said. "I'm professor Kate Oran." She introduced herself. "Do you have an area we can use?"

"There's no free rooms inside the base but our basic command and gathering place is set up in the orchard." Tex replied. "If you follow me I'll show you the way."

"Very well then Sergeant." Kate replied as she started to follow Tex.

Tex had to admit she was envious of the way the armored marines fell into position around the civilians. She didn't understand why she couldn't have soldiers like that. "This use to be a military base before the war but during it the people used it for storage and farm land. The UNSC took charge of it again after the war as a base for the relief efforts. We haven't been able to clear out all the stuff." Tex explained as they reached the orchard.

The soldiers of Blood Gulch trailed behind them. "Now Those are what I call soldiers." Corp said.

"I wonder if I could join them. I bet their leader is really take charge." Simmons added hopefully.

"You'd be too much of a kiss ass." Grif remarked. "I just want that armor. It is so hard to fall asleep while on duty without that stuff.

"I wonder if they will be my friend." Caboose said moving a bit faster to catch up with them.

"I don't think that is a good idea. They might kill you." Tucker said trying to get Caboose to stop.

"Let him, Caboose dying would make life here way easier for us." Grif said with a laugh.

"No it's not. Then I'll have to do work again." Tucker countered.

Caboose approached the last of the marines and tapped his shoulder. "Will you be my friend?" He asked.

Andrew looked back at the dumb soldier and thought about not answering. He decided that he doubted that Caboose would just leave. "No." He said bluntly.

"Caboose, leave them alone." Tex ordered as she walked back to the two soldiers. "Go back to work." She instructed.

"But I want them to be my friend. Not best friends though. Church is still my best friend."

"Oh come on Caboose let it go. They don't want to be your friend and Church is dead.' Tucker said.

"All of you back to your posts." Tex ordered forcefully.

"But we want to see why they are here." Tucker complained frowning at the female soldier.

"You should follow the orders of your superiors." Ander commented flatly watching the unarmored soldiers warily.

"Like we are going to do that. I should still be a Sergeant. Beside, I'm not going to take orders from a woman." Corp commented.

The Staff Sergeant held up his hand stopping the fully steel armored soldier beside him from moving. Andrew stepped toward the unarmored soldiers. "Your reluctance to return to your post makes me suspicious. We may have to remove you to insure that there is no security risk to our charges." He said.

"Um…I'm going to return to my post." Grif said turning and running back to the base. Simmons was close behind him and the other reds ran off soon after. Caboose and Tucker reluctantly left a bit after them.

"I'm sorry about them." Tex said a bit panicked as she turned to the Staff Sergeant.

"Can we go somewhere to speak about the local defense?" Steve asked walking over to the Sergeant.

"Sure, I have an area that only I use." Tex replied before moving in the direction of the base.

The Staff Sergeant turned to the other soldiers and gave them some quick orders. He, Steve, and Allison then followed Tex into the base while the remaining soldiers took guard positions around the orchard.

~End chapter 4~

A/N: Please read and review. It's just that little button down in the corner down there.


	5. You've changed

A/N: I don't own anything from RvB or Halo.

Chapter 5

He hadn't expected that they would be here. Leonard had thought he was free of those aggravating soldiers back at the freelancer headquarters. He had been glad for Andrew's actions. He had been about a second away from stepping in and ordering the soldiers himself. He would have regretted it he was sure. The last thing he wanted to do was let them know that. They would only want to know how he is alive and pester him. He had a job to do and didn't have time to mess with them.

Tex lead them into the base and to a small room. The majority of the rooms were stuffed with supplies and junk. The room they were lead to seemed to be Tex's privet quarters. She sat down at the desk and pulled out some maps. "So what do you want to know?" She asked.

"What kind of security do you currently have?" Leonard asked flatly as he leaned against the wall beside the desk.

Tex managed not to look surprised at hearing his voice. "Well we don't really have any now. I don't even let any of the soldiers carry guns. This is a peaceful planet so we've never really needed them." Tex replied. "There are guns in the storage room at the end of the hall."

Leonard turned to his other soldiers." Willson, Brigs, take stock of their weapons." He ordered. The soldiers nodded and left the room closing the door behind them.

"I didn't think I'd see you again. Tucker said that you'd been destroyed by the EMP." Tex said leaning back in her chair. "I see they upgraded your robot model."

Leonard turned back to her. "I don't know what you mean." He said removing his helmet.

Tex just stared at him for a moment taking in the sight. If she was surprised to see him in a human body she didn't let it show. "I didn't think they'd let the Alpha AI have a human body."

"They didn't." Alpha cut in. This time Tex didn't hide her surprise. "Though I have to admit I do like my partner."

Tex remained silent for a moment. "Well what do you want to do here?" She asked returning to her calm attitude.

"Protect the people I've been charged with then get off this planet and back to the real war." Leonard replied.

"You don't want to stick around and catch up with the old BG gang." Tex said mockingly.

"You know I don't." Leonard replied flatly. "I just want these people to finish with whatever they are here for so my team can get back to real fighting."

"You're even more agitated then usual." Tex remarked. "I wouldn't think you would be so wiling to go back to risking your life."

"I've changed." Leonard replied simply. "I'm not here for pleasantries and chit chat. I have a job to do."

Tex sighed and looked away. "You really have changed." She said sounding disappointed. "Very well, I'll send a team out with yours."

"Like hell you will Sergeant." Leonard said emphasizing her rank. "I know what you're thinking and you are not sending those idiots out with me. My team has a spotless record and I'm not going to let them ruin it."

"Oh come on Church you know they'll want to see you again. If you want I won't let them have weapons. They know the land and the public won't be as nervous if they are with you." Tex argued.

Leonard thought it over for a minute. He had to admit that she was right. "Very well, no weapons and they have to submit to my authority." He finalized.

"Good luck with that second part." Tex said with a slight laugh. "I've been trying to do that for some time. They only respond to physical threats."

"That won't be a problem. I'll make my policies clear and make it clear that none of my team will accept defiance of my orders." Leonard said making it evident that he wasn't joking. "This armor isn't like our old armor. It enhances the wearer's physical abilities." He explained.

"So what? Now you can chop a piece of wood in half?" Tex mocked him.

"More like punch through a block of cement. I don't need armor for wood." Leonard corrected. "I told you, I've changed."

"Alright then, I'll give the orders. Do you want me to tell them it's you?" Tex asked.

"No, but do tell them that if they defy my orders I'll put them in the hospital." Leonard replied. The last thing he wanted was for them to know it was him and then take them with him. He didn't want them bugging him to death with questions through the whole mission and thinking that he was still the same soldier from Blood Gulch.

Allison looked at him for a moment. "So what made you change so much? You never use to be like this." She asked.

Leonard stayed silent for a moment. "I found out what was really going on and I decided that I didn't want to be passive. Beside, I'm not half bad at my job." He added with a slight smirk.

"Alright then, I'll give the order." Allison said grabbing her radio. "Grif, I have orders for you to give out." She said.

After a moment Grif replied. "Alright, I'm ready for it." He replied though they could hear a hint of another person complaining in the background.

Tex gave him the orders and who was to receive them making sure to insure Grif was going to get across the part about following orders. She then turned to Leonard. "They'll be waiting for you at the edge of the orchard." She informed him. Leonard nodded before putting his helmet back on.

Steve and Allison entered the room a second later. "Sir, there must have been a mistake." Steve said.

"What do you mean soldier?" Leonard asked moving away from the wall and toward the others.

"Well sir, there are 2 crates of pistols and 5 crates of battle rifle ammunition." Allison explained. "If this base were to be attacked it would be defenseless."

"I'll report this to command." Alpha commented. "If they are so worried about rebels you would think they'd want this place to be able to defend itself."

"Rebels? They haven't told us anything about rebels." Tex said sounding a bit concerned.

"It might have been the captain lied to us. Gave us false reasoning." Alpha proposed.

"No, every planet has the threat of rebels, he did not lie." Leonard corrected. "They are just less likely here but if the original locals see the business people looking to develop by destroying the local forest they would be in danger. Don't let your guard down just because you are supposed to be helping them. Before this mission we were on Victoria helping rescue relief workers there."

"So are we or are we not in danger?" Tex asked bluntly frowning at the Staff Sergeant.

"Right now I don't think so. New Jerusalem doesn't have a history of rebels like Victoria. For now I think those 6 civilians are in the most danger." Leonard replied.

"Well then I'll be joining you as well." Tex said sternly as though no one would dare say no to her.

"No, you'll be needed here." Leonard countered forcefully.

"No I won't. Without the 7 other soldiers the only people left will be the soldiers that watch the area around the base. They can handle themselves" Tex reasoned. "Beside, I am not going to miss out on the most exciting thing to happen here since I was stationed here. It would be like you staying out of the fight against omega."

"And I should have stayed out of that. It would have saved me a lot of trouble." Leonard replied.

"I'm sorry Staff Sergeant but it is my duty to go with you." Tex said emphasizing his rank. "They are on the planet I am in charge of and they are therefore also my responsibility." She reasoned.

Leonard had to admit she had a good point. Not to mention it would be nice to have one sane soldier that knew the land. "Only if you refer to me as sir." He bargained.

"Yes sir." Tex replied saluting him quickly.

"Then let's go." He said before leading the 3 soldiers out of the base and to the orchard.

~End chapter 5~

A/N: There is chapter 5. Please read and review. I do love to hear from you all.


	6. We've got a problem

A/N: I don't own anything from Halo or Red vs blue.

Chapter 6

He was sure he was going to regret this, the last thing he needed was useless soldiers dragging them down. They just had one problem, transportation. After a short chat they made plans as to how they would make it to the locations. They had decided to take for of the warthog M831 TT, one Warthog M12 LRV, and three of the bases Mongoose's. Leonard had instructed Steve and Allison to give his orders to the Blood Gulch soldiers. The civilians had gathered with the other soldiers waiting to leave. The reds had moved the vehicles out into the area around the orchard. Leonard motioned to Grif and Simmons and then to the first warthog. After a moment of fighting Grif got in the driver's seat and Simmons took shotgun. Brandon led two of the business people to the rear of the vehicle and helped them in before hopping aboard the vehicle himself. Leonard assigned Corp and Donut to the second warthog. Corp took the wheel while Donut took shotgun complaining about how the wind was going to mess up his hair. Tricia helped two of the civilians into the rear with her. Paul moved toward the third warthog taking the driver's seat. Sister took shotgun while the last of the civilians, Professor Oran, and Douglas entered the rear of the vehicle. Andre took the driver's seat of the M12 LRV with Lorie riding shotgun and Joe manning the gun.

"Come on Tucker, Caboose, you're with me." Tex said leading the blues to the last warthog. She took the driver's seat; Tucker took shotgun, while Caboose got in the back with Steve and Allison. Leonard, Keith, and Natalie boarded the Mongooses and they readied to head out and then Leonard led them off out of the base.

As they made their way down the streets of the local city Leonard had to admit that Tex had been right. The locals seemed to ether be scared to death by the sight of the armored soldiers of have nothing but hatred for them, though the sight of the unarmored soldiers didn't seem to help. "I thought you said that they would feel more at ease with you here." Steve said to Tex.

"I said that they might. I never promised that they would." Tex replied simply. "Some of them don't like the fact that the military is here or that the refuges have been put on the planet. Some of the people feel it is nothing but a drain on their city. I guess a bunch of armored soldiers are enough to upset them. I don't think they'll do anything though."

"They better not do anything. We have to do whatever we need to in order to protect those people." Steve said shifting his rifle.

Tex let it go and she was glad that the marines let it go. They didn't stay in civilization for long though, that's not why they were there. The scenery shifted from large buildings, to refugee barracks, to forest. UNSC vehicles were never the easiest to handle but they were good off road so they weren't completely useless. The warthogs bounced across the unworn path through the trees as animals ran away from the unfamiliar objects. The soldiers came to a halt before a large pile of rocks blocking their path.

Steve jumped out of the back of the warthog and walked over to Leonard. "What do we do sir?" He asked.

"We leave the vehicles and move out on foot." Leonard rebelled dismounting his Mongoose. He glanced over at the civilians. "If we weren't protecting them I would suggest leaving them out here. This is a waste of time."

"If only, if only." Steve agreed. He then turned to the group of warthogs. "We're moving out on foot." He shouted to them.

"On foot? Does that mean walking?" Grif asked.

"What else could on foot mean? Would you rather run?" Simmons snapped at the other soldier.

"No, I'd rather stay here and watch the pumas." Grif answered using his favorite name for the vehicles.

"Quit your bell aching, soldier." Brandon spoke up. "Just get your asses out of the vehicle and get ready to walk."

"Yessir." Simmons replied jumping out of the vehicle. Grif's reply was a bit less formal but he to exit the vehicle. Once everyone was on foot the group started to walk.

"We're still a few miles away from our first target area." Professor Oran commented.

"Well then we're in luck that this place doesn't have many large predators." Tex commented. "Most of them live farther up north."

"And what about the ones that are around here?" One of the civilians asked.

"They won't mess with us. Would you with them around?" She asked motioning to the armored soldiers.

They suddenly stopped as Leonard held up his hand and slowly made a fist. The marines froze in place as Leonard moved forward a bit checking something on the ground. He turned to the others and slowly shook his head from side to side. He squeezed his fist tighter before stretching out his fingers and quickly making a fist once more. The marines moved closer to the civilians making a tight circle and readied their weapons.

"What in the name of Steven Colbert is going on?" Corp asked confused by the actions.

"There's trouble ahead." Allison answered quietly keeping her eyes on the Staff Sergeant.

Corp looked at her surprised. "You're a girl? Why the hell would they give a woman equipment like that armor?"

"Danger on this planet, what are you talking about?' Tucker asked before Allison could say anything. He then turned to Corp. "Of course she's a girl, it's obvious. Also, why Steven Colbert? Why not John Stewart."

"Because John Stewart is a liberal pansy." Corp replied.

"Sure you say that but which one has a national holiday and which one was president?" Tucker asked.

"That election was rigged." Sarge shot back angrily.

"Shut it, both of you." Allison snapped. "There's danger in the area and you two are arguing about dead people. I don't know how Church ever put up with you."

That caught Tucker's attention and Allison right away regretted it. "You know Church, and he talked about us?" He asked.

Allison didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to answer without giving away that he was their leader. "That mean you met him after we went to scary people base. That means Church is still alive." Caboose nearly shouted in joy.

"Why would it matter? Doesn't he hate you?" Simmons asked. "I mean you killed him or something."

"No we are the best of friends." Caboose corrected him. "It was Tucker's fault any way."

"Yeah, you didn't blow him up with a tank, or shoot Corp when Church was possessing him, or set off a bomb inside his robot body that sent him back in time over and over." Grif said sarcastically.

"Nope, none of that ever happened." Caboose replied dumbly.

"Great Himalayan mountain goat, do you ever shut up?" Corp asked.

"Why don't you all shut up and follow orders." Tex snapped glaring at the soldiers.

The soldiers continued to argue but Leonard had already shut them out. "So what do you have for me?" He asked Alpha.

"I don't detect any enemies near but they might be using active camouflage." The AI replied. "It's hard to detect them though with so few military satellites here."

"Then hack some commercial ones." Leonard replied as though it were obvious.

"I'm not use to working with soldiers that think like me." Alpha said rather pleased. The AI hacked into just bout ever satellite in orbit. Most of them had cameras or some sort of system to detect where they were in orbit. Alpha was more human then other AI and he was willing to admit it. Other AI would not judge people but Alpha did, and he usually heated them and he was more likely to make mistakes. Alpha was shifting the satellites so that the were all facing the marine's location when he made the mistake. It had really only been a small mistake, he just adjusted the satellite a bit too much. Where as most people consider these mistakes a fault but Alpha found them to be rather useful. If not for this mistake the soldiers would have been completely off guard. "Sir, why are these civilians here?" Alpha asked transmitting the image to Leonard's HUD.

Leonard frowned at the image that he was looking at. It had to be some kind of trick, it couldn't be real. There was no way that many loyalists could have snuck onto the planet. He was about to asked the civilians about it when he spotted the tell tale shimmer. He slowly reached up grabbing the handle of the battle knife that was attached to the front of his CQB chest plate. Alison, Keith, and Lorie all did the same, all having caught sight off the hidden enemies around them. Keith seemed to be staring out at nothing, Allison was staring past Leonard's shoulder, while Lorie quickly glanced behind her. Leonard nodded his head slowly understanding where they all were and then flashed his amber status light once. The other dropped their hands form their blades returning them to their weapons while the others continued to act as though nothing was happening and they were just listening to the unarmored soldiers fight. Leonard waited a few seconds before making his move. He drew the knife from his armor and threw it. The blade spun though the air before burying itself in the shoulder of the unarmored brute. The rest of the marines moved to cover the civilians from the danger. Lorie spun raising two SMGs and unloaded both of them into the brute killing it. Allison raised her battle rifle pointing it at a shimmer behind Leonard. Leonard ducked out of the way as Allison opened fire on the brute. The shots hit the brute's right shoulder disabling the alien's camouflage. Leonard spun around lifting his shotgun and fired one shot at the brute's head. The beast fell dead, its head nothing but torn up metal and flesh among broken bone. Keith finished his the third brute off with a few quick burst of fire strait to the creature's head. Once they were sure the brutes were dead and there was no more danger Leonard retrieved his knife. He looked at the bloody blade for a moment before turning to Lorie. "What did you not pain?" He asked holding up the cobalt blade to the soldier.

"Just be glad we didn't paint ourselves." Lorie replied only half joking. It wouldn't have surprised Church if they did that.

Leonard decided that he would let it go. There was no point in arguing with his soldiers because they had team spirit. He walked over to the civilians and slid his knife back into place on his chest plate. The civilians looked up at him as though they didn't understand why he was watching them. "Why are you really here?" He asked.

The unarmored soldiers looked up at him surprised. Leonard ignored them and continued to stare at the civilians. "We are only surveying." One of the business men replied.

"Bull shit" Leonard said. "Why would you specifically want to survey land that is crawling with covies? They are digging for something and they never dig for anything good."

"Dude, you are alive." Tucker said surprised completely ignoring the serious subject.

"Not now, Tucker." Leonard said turning back to the civilians determined to get a satisfactory answer.

"I'm afraid it's my bad. From studies of the other locations I believed this place might have something similar to Reach." Professor Oran spoke up. "I didn't know the covenant was here though."

"Wait, you think that what was found in Reach might be here?" Alpha asked.

"I believe there might be something similar at the least around here." Professor Oran replied.

"What was found in Reach?" Leonard asked feeling like he was missing something really important.

"A crystal that could bend the space around it was found. There wasn't time to really study it." Alpha replied.

"Are you talking to yourself?" Simmons asked confused by hearing both Alpha and Leonard speaking to each other and in the same voice.

"No you dumb ass." Leonard snapped not wanting to take the time to explain it. "Now be quiet and let the real soldiers work."

"If there is something like that in this planet we need to find it before the covenant." Alpha reasoned. "Something like that would give them an advantage over us."

"Then inform command of the situation. We are in no position to handle it." Leonard replied.

"There isn't an UNSC battle cruiser within radio distance." Alpha pointed out.

"Try a separatist ship." Leonard suggested. The separatist might have been covenant at some time but now they were on the good side and Leonard was willing to get them to deal with the situation.

There was a pause before the AI replied. "Nope, nothing at all. It looks like we are on our own." Alpha replied. "What will you do?" He asked sounding interested.

Leonard though it over for a moment before coming to a decision. "We can't let them have anything down there." He finally said. "Here's the plan. Allison…"He said turning to the Corporal.

"Yessir" Both Allison and Tex said at the same time. The two women turned to look at each other.

"Dude, one of your soldiers is named Allison? What are the chances of one of your soldiers and your ex having the same name?" Tucker laughed.

"Would you just shut up Tucker? Unless you are going to say something helpful just keep your mouth shut." Leonard said turning to the women. "I meant Brigs." Leonard said pointing to Allison. "You and Steel team will stay here and protect the civis with Tex and her team. Cobalt team and Sapphire team will go with me. We're going to clear out the place. When I give the signal Steel team and everyone else with them will head down to the digging sight and we'll go looking for this thing." Leonard instructed. "Understood?"

"Yessir." The marines and Tex replied.

Leonard looked to the unarmored soldiers. "I said understood?" He asked in a threatening tone.

"Dude I still can't get past the fact you are alive." Tucker replied. "Let alone the fact that you have another female soldier named Allison."

Leonard glared at him though it wasn't visible past the helmet. "Whatever, just don't get the civilians killed." He said before leading his team off.

~End chapter 6~

A/N: Next chapter will have all the more death and fighting. Please read and review.


	7. Cleaning house

A/N: I don't own anything from Halo or RvB.

Chapter 7

Leonard slowly moved into a cluster of bushes and lay down on the hard ground. He set up his sniper rifle once he was sure that he would not be spotted and he would have a clear shot. He looked around spotting the other two members of Cobalt team. He noted that Keith had chosen a pile of rocks and that Natalie, as usual, had chosen an unusual spot and was wedged high in a tree. Sapphire team was crouched in the vegetation below waiting for the signal. "Do they have the equipment?" Leonard asked Alpha. After a fight some time ago against a large horde of brutes he had found that they sometimes had a device that could detect the location of radio signals making radio useless.

There was a pause from the AI before it replied. "From what I can tell they have a low level version. It will alert them that there's a signal near but not exactly where."

"Well once all hell breaks loose it won't really matter." Leonard said. He took his aim at the chieftain brute who stood watching over the work. There was only one chieftain in the group and about 10 minor brutes wandering around the sight. He had ordered Keith and Natalie to target minors and leave the chieftain to him to prevent them targeting the same brutes and wasting ammunition. He steadied his weapon and aimed carefully. Once he had his enemies head in the cross hairs he fired off two rapid shots. The first shot broke apart the chieftain's helmet and the second ripped through the brute's head in a shower of blood, skull, and brain. Leonard then turned his aim to the lower level brutes and fired his remaining two shots. Keith and Natalie opened fire as soon as the first of Leonard's shots were fired, hitting their targets with precision. Once the last of the brutes were dead Leonard switched to his shotgun and stood up. "Keith, Natalie, stay where you are. Sapphire team, get psycho." Leonard ordered as he ran forward. The snipers flashed their status lights once to indicate that they received the order while Sapphire team shouted as they ran out of the forest behind Leonard. The marines opened fire cutting down large groups of grunts in seconds.

A line of Kig Yar appeared using their energy shields to make a wall for protection from the rapid fire of the SMGs. "Can you get at them?" Leonard asked the rest of Cobalt team.

A shot rang out and a single Kig Yar fell. "They are making it hard but every once in a while there's an opening. It will be slow work but we could do it." Keith replied.

Leonard removed a single frag grenade from his belt. "Well let's speed it up." He said before tossing the grenade over the jackal's shields. The explosion took out five of the jackals leaving a large hole in the make shift wall. "Move up." Leonard ordered leading the other soldiers forward. He moved up to the closest jackal and slammed the butt of his shotgun into its shield. The jackal stepped back lowering his shield as it stood stunned. Leonard took this chance and smashed the alien's head with a second strike. He then turned and fired killing two of the Kig Yar. Lorie appeared to Leonard's left and finished off the last two. Tricia and Andrew finished off the second group grabbing the energy shield from the bodies. Lorie did the same with the jackals that she and Leonard had just killed.

Leonard was about to order the team to do a sweep of the area when a loud thudding began. It was loud and had a steady beat like footsteps of a large creature. "What is that?" He asked.

"Well my best guess would have to be that it is the steps of a hunter." Alpha replied.

"I though the loyalist didn't have any more hunters." Leonard said looking around for the source.

"There are no more hunter pairs but it seems there is only one hunter. From the sound there is only one set of steps." The AI explained.

Just as the AI finished speaking a near by chopper was sent flying through the air. The single hunter opened fire blasting at the marines with its fuel rod gun. "Scatter." Leonard ordered as he moved for cover. The marines split up running from the large blast. "Cobalts, you got any targets?" He shouted to the two snipers.

"Nothing but armor sir, it's moving to fast to really keep it in my sights." Natalie replied.

"Same for me, sir. Damn I thought they were supposed to be slow. I guess the only thing that the legends got right was the strength." Keith reported.

"Their only weak point is the orange worms. Try to get behind it. Their backs don't have any armor." Alpha instructed.

"You just made me glad I brought you." Leonard said looking for a way to get around the hunter without being blow to bits. Because it was believed the covenant had no more hunters it was no longer standard procedure to learn how to fight them. The only ones that knew how were those that had already fought them, and most of them were retired. The only thing that Leonard knew about them was what was passed down by word of mouth and though tales that soldiers would tell. "Now how do I get behind it without being blown up?" Leonard asked.

"That I can't tell you. Aren't you supposed to be the combat and strategy part of the team?" Alpha asked.

"Now's not the time to start being and ass hole." Leonard said watching as the hunter fired again and the marines scattered from the location. "Of all the times for Joe not to have a rocket launcher." He muttered waiting for hunter to fire again. Once the next shot had finished Leonard moved out form behind his cover. By his calculations there was about a three second waiting time between shots and the shots lasted for about two seconds. When the blast stopped he rushed forward surprising the hunter. He moved to circle around the beast's left side trying to find an opening.

In a desperate attempt to protect its back form Leonard the hunter swung around to the right in a wide arch. The marine dropped to the round just barely in time before the shield cut through the space his body had just occupied. He didn't doubt that the force would have been enough to kill him in a matter of seconds. There was a glimpse of orange above him and he took action. Leonard thrust the barrel of his weapon up until it met something soft, then fired. The hunter cried out in pain and stepped back at the impact as shredded worms fell from the gap in the armor. Leonard stood up and coked his gun before firing a second time. The second shot did the job and the hunter fell to the ground. He put one last shot into the creature being sure it was dead before he clicked on his radio. "Steel team, go ahead and bring down the useless bags of crap, on and bring Tex and the civilians while you're at it." He ordered.

Allison held herself back from laughing but the other Steel team members didn't hesitate to break out in laughter. "Yes sir, we'll be there shortly." Allison reported.

"What are they laughing about?" Grif asked turning to Allison. He knew that he had been insulted but his laziness made him not really care so the question came out without any conviction or indication that he really wanted an answer.

She decided to avoid the question but she couldn't ignore Tucker's question. "Are you sure that's Church? I mean that guy can fight, and has good aim. Church can't do ether of those things." Of course the comment earned him three rifles pointed at his face. "What did I say?"

"You insulted our Sergeant." Douglas explained. "In the C.A. we don't stand for that kind of thing."

"The C.A., What's that?" Caboose asked. "Can I join?"

The three soldiers just glared at him from behind their visors. "Would you all just shut it? Tex, Simmons, and Grif, grab the maulers from the dead brutes." Allison ordered. Once they had gone to do as she commanded she grabbed Tucker's collar. She pulled the soldier toward her so they were face to helmet. "And you, don't ever insult the Sergeant again or I'll kill you myself." She threatened before letting go of him. Once the others had returned Allison led the group down to the waiting marines.

~End Chapter 7~

A/N: Please read and review.


	8. investigating

A/N: I don't own anything from halo or Red vs Blue.

Chapter 8

The weapon selection from their kills was insulting. Not a single one of the brutes had anything better then a mauler and all the lower species had carried only plasma pistols. Once the rest of the soldiers had gathered at the dig sight they passed out weapons to everyone, except Caboose. Leonard insured each of the unarmored soldiers received a jackal shield and heard the basic instructions. He doubted in a combat situation that they would remember they had them but he was giving it a shot.

"I can't believe their chieftain didn't have a grav. hammer." Joe Complained kicking at a bit of broken brute armor.

"You're really just mad because that hunter's fuel rod gun is too big to carry around." Andrew remarked.

"Doesn't change the fact that a chieftain should have a grav hammer." Joe shot back.

"You're both idiots." Brandon interrupted. "Can't you sit quietly while you wait?"

Andrew and Joe looked at each other then back to Brandon. "No." They said in unison.

"You know this whole time I thought you guys were special soldiers but you aren't." Tucker said.

"What are you talking about?" Steve asked turning his attention fully to the conversation.

"Well I thought you were badass soldiers but you're really just normal soldiers who are badass every once in a while." Tucker explained.

The marines just stared at him for a moment. "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? We're the most badass of the badasses, we're ODST." Andrew replied.

Tucker stared at them surprised. "You're really helljumpers?" he asked. Leonard walked over to the group and Tucker looked at him. "Now I know it's not you."

"Tucker, what the fuck are you babbling about?" Leonard asked glaring at the soldiers.

"Now I know you're not the Church I know. The Church I know couldn't kill a hunter, can't snipe worth shit, and could never be the leader of a squad of ODST. Hell, he was barely the leader of our team." Tucker replied.

"You're really grading on my nerves Tucker. I'm trying to make sure that we all make it back alive but if you insult me one more time you won't be making it back to base." Leonard threatened.

"Would you cut it out Tucker? It's the same Church from Blood Gulch. In fact, you, Caboose, and Sister all made it out alive. Considering all the shit that happened I'd say that he did a good job of leading you." Tex spoke up.

"I don't care if you meant it that way but I'm taking that as a complement." Leonard commented.

"Bite me ass hole." Tex snapped at him turning her back on the man not willing to admit that it sort of was a complement.

"I always though you were a good leader." Caboose spoke up smiling happily at Leonard.

"And they call me a kiss ass. At least I sometimes point out the flaws of Corp's plans." Simmons commented.

"Yeah, but Caboose isn't kissing his ass because Church is a higher rank. He just wants Church to be his best friend." Tucker pointed out.

"Like hell that will happen. Wash was a better friend. At least he didn't shoot me with a tank." Leonard commented.

"Yeah, but he did think that EMP would destroy you." Tucker said crossing his arms. "That doesn't sound like a good friend."

"Tucker, shut up." Leonard snapped at the teal soldier. He hadn't really told his team about him once being and AI. Hell he hadn't told them about most of what had happened from the point where he met Wash on. It just didn't seem that important.

"What does he mean by erased?" Allison asked turning to Leonard with a questioning look.

"Let it go." Leonard said sternly giving her a look to insure that she knew he meant it. "It's not important."

"I think it'd be important to me if my leader was a robot." Tucker spoke up. The marines all turned to him and looked at him confused. They knew Leonard was human, they had seen it.

"Stop the pillow talk turd monkeys." Alpha cut in. "The big kids have business to attend to."

"And here I thought you were going to be nice." Leonard commented drily smirking behind his helmet.

"Fuck that shit." Alpha replied. "Any way, the professor is finished studying the area and wants you all to join her."

"We'll be right over, keep an eye above." Leonard ordered the AI. "Get your asses moving." He instructed the solders.

The soldiers joined professor Oran next to the covenant digging equipment. "Well it seems there is something here." She said once they were close enough. "It's kind of hard to tell but this space is actually an entrance to something." She explained motioning to the cliff face before them. "I think that I can get his working and we can get the rest of the way though."

"That is a terrible idea." Leonard stated. "First, that would leave a huge hole in our defenses. We'd have to post someone to watch the hole the entire time we were in there. Second, by the time you got that thing up and running this place could be crawling with more covies and then there would be the time to actually drill though."

"Well then what do you suggest that we do?" The woman asked glaring at the man.

Leonard moved over to the cliff face. "I suggest that we just open it." He said bluntly before pressing his hand against the rock. A single forerunner symbol appeared and the rock split, slowly sliding away to reveal a large empty hallway.

"How did you know that was there?" Professor Oran asked moving over to the place that Leonard had pressed to look at the symbol.

"We went to Reach for a short time and found some of this kind of stuff." Leonard explained. "You had to look really hard to see it and from what we could tell only humans could use it."

"Why were you on Reach?" Corp asked watching as the doors continued to open wider.

"We were looking for some Spartans. They went missing there some time ago." Leonard replied. "Joe, Tricia, take apart that drill." Leonard ordered. "We don't want the covenant to come back and start using it again."

Once the drill was dismantled they started into the opening. They walked down the passage for hours. The passage just never seemed to end.

"Can we take a break?" Tucker asked sounding exhausted. "This is getting us nowhere.

"Be glad we haven't found anything. Forerunner doesn't usually mean anything good." Leonard commented. He looked around and saw that the civilians looked a bit tired. "Douglas, Brandon, watch out back. Andrew, Lorie, watch our front." The marines moved to guard positions while the civilians and unarmored soldiers sat down.

"What if there's nothing down here?" Grif asked leaning against the wall and setting his gun to the side.

"Well then we're wasting out time." Simmons replied bluntly. "What would you be expecting?"

"Insuring that there is nothing dangerous here is not a waste of time." Leonard cut in. "In fact that's our job, as soldiers."

"You never use to care about being a soldier back in Blood Gulch." Tex pointed out.

"I wasn't really a soldier. The things that happened in that canyon are nothing like real soldier duties." Leonard pointed out.

"You're only saying that because your team sucks." Tucker replied in a cocky tone.

"You surrendered to us." Corp pointed out.

"Yeah, but we tricked you into taking Doc and got Grif to insult himself." Tucker said.

"That's a victory, because we all love Grif." Simmons said sarcastically.

"Well we all know that you do." Leonard cut into the conversation, from where he was standing. He had turned his attention to something on the wall near buy. He moved closer to it noticing that the marking didn't look natural and almost seemed to be glowing faintly. He was about to bring it to the professor's attention when Brandon moved over to him.

"Sir, there's something coming." Brandon reported. "From what I can hear it sounds like drones."

"Helljumpers, form up. Ready rifles and aim high." Leonard commanded. "You guys protect the civilians." He ordered the BG soldiers.

The unarmored soldiers circled around the civilians, activating their jackal shields. The marines lined up aiming high for the approaching drones. The swarm arrived and Leonard counted about 30 of the insect aliens flying about. The marines open fire and five of the creatures dropped like stones. Drones weren't hard to kill, they didn't have any extra armor, but they moved around so much that they were hard to follow. Three of the drones passed over head dropping something down. There was a bright light and Leonard's ears rang. Everything seemed to slow down as his suit adjusted back to normal conditions. He heard what seemed to be the muffled sound of a voice but he didn't know whose. There was the echoing clang as another of the devices was dropped near by. The device went off and Leonard felt Alpha draw himself directly into his neural implants to protect itself. Leonard's armor's systems faltered and shut down. He felt the sudden wait of the armor drag him to the ground. His head hit the ground and for a moment his mind swam before he blacked out.

~End chapter 8~

A/N: Thank you for reading, now please review.


	9. What next

A/N: I don't own anything from Red vs Blue or Band of Brothers.

Chapter 9

Leonard was glad he hadn't taken the bet against Steve. They had been put under the command of Captain Sobel at first. No one in the team had liked the captain. He was an ass hole, not the good kind. He seemed to take pleasure in finding fault with the soldiers then punishing them for it. He didn't even take pride in their teamwork or at their nearly spotless record. Luckily Leonard didn't stay with the team long, only for about a month or so. At that point he and Steve were moved to a small training group on board the ship. They were trained in the use of SOEIV pods and spent a short time doing team exercises. It was the first time Leonard met the soldiers that would eventually be under his command. They were instructed by Lieutenant Winters. Now he was a leader that Leonard liked. The tests were hard, not a single bit of information could be left out of an answer, and he demanded they be synchronized in their exercises. It took them five weeks for all of them to pass.

Leonard gathered with the other soldiers in a small room that was used for briefings. He sat between Steve and Corporal Nixon. They had all received their first mission since joining the group. There was an aura around the group though whether it was nervousness or excitement Leonard had no idea. Everything fell silent as Lieutenant Winters entered. The marines stood at attention and saluted their CO. Winters saluted them back. "As you were." He said as his hand returned to its place behind his back. Once the soldiers had seated themselves the Lieutenant continued. "Today is a very big day. Today we go on our first mission, and we do our first drop. We will get in those pods, drop down to the planet, and when your pod hits that ground and you walk out of it you will be a helljumper. As a helljumper it will be your duty to kick ass on that planet. We will be taking out five stationary cannons that are preventing our troops from getting into the hills. Joe will be carrying the explosives." He said pausing for a moment. "I'm not going to lie to you; some of you won't make it to the planet alive. It is the risk we run every time we do a jump. If you aren't going to make it you'll know. I ask only that if you are going to panic that you turn off your radios. Jumps are hard enough without listening to your comrades die." He explained. Now Leonard was sure the soldiers were nervous. "When you arrived here I saluted you as fellow soldiers who had fought in the war. Today I salute you as soldiers that I respect and am proud to serve with." He said, a hint of pride in his words. "Now, head down to the pods and get ready to drop." Winters ordered saluting the marines. The soldiers saluted him in return before they were dismissed.

Leonard moved down the halls to the pods that they would soon be dropped in. "So you nervous, sir?" Steve asked walking beside Leonard.

"A bit, but not really about me." He replied earning a look from Steve. "Just make sure you make it down alive."

Steve huffed at the words. "Just worry about yourself. You die and we're down a Corporal. That'd limit our combat options."

"Winters would make due. He's seen plenty of action. You'd all be fine." Leonard pointed out.

"I thought he was just a teacher. Why else would he have been teaching us?" Douglas spoke up.

"No, he's been training and fighting along side ODST for years. He was even on the Delta Halo." Leonard explained.

Joe let out a low whistle. "Man, I didn't know he'd seen that kind of actions. His respect just went up in value. But what is he doing training new soldiers?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make much since." Leonard replied. The conversation died as they reached their destination.

The marines moved into the pods, securing themselves. "See you on the planet." Steve said closing the hatch to his pod.

Leonard nodded knowing Steve would not be able to hear him through the thick metal. He turned to look at Winters who was watching him. "See you on the planet, sir." He said saluting the Lieutenant.

Winters saluted him back and nodded. "See you there soldier." He said before Leonard's pod shut.

Leonard stood waiting for the green light and the inevitable drop. He didn't have long to wait. The inside light shinned green and seconds later his pod dropped. The silence, which would later become so unnerving that they would refuse to drop without their theme music, filled the pod as Leonard held onto the inside of the pod preparing for when he reached the atmosphere. He noted that as they dropped one radio switched off. They had already lost one man, on their first jump. Leonard felt his SOEIV pod shake as it entered the atmosphere and the pod began to slow. There was a thud and sudden jerk as the pod hit the ground. After checking that he wasn't injured he hit the button to release the hatch. He raised his battle rifle as the front hatch released falling to the ground with a thud. After a quick sweep of the area to be sure it was clear he exited the pod grabbing his grenades and his SMG.

He had landed in a field at the base of a large hill. He took off across the field into the tropical like forest for cover. After quickly checking his location and the rendezvous point he started moving though the forest. He joined up with the rest of the marines in the ruins of a city. They gathered in what was once a school but now was barely standing. He was pleased to see Steve among the marines as he went to report to the Lieutenant.

Winters nodded to him as he arrived. "Glad to see you made it, Corporal." He said with a strait face.

"Who'd we lose, sir?" Leonard asked nodding back. He could only hope it wasn't one of the soldiers that were in his close circle of friends.

"We lost Nixon." Winters replied sadly. "Brigs found what was left of his pod." He said simply.

Leonard frowned at the news. He wasn't especially close to the other Corporal but the loss of any teammate was a blow. "What is the plan?" He asked.

"We need to take out those cannons. We're going to approach cautiously and get a full view of their lay out before we make an attack plan." Winters replied.

"Yessir." Leonard replied. He ordered the marines to get ready and they moved out six minutes later. The soldiers moved across the land a quietly as possible while still maintaining reasonable speed. They stopped as they reached the bottom of the rocky hill. The echoing shots followed as bright plasma soared though the air making it clear they were in the right place. Leonard joined Winters as he studied the covenant troop locations along the hill.

"They have one plasma turret and plenty of jackals and grunts. I count only two brutes though. One on the turret and one organizing the cannon fire." Winters said.

Leonard pulled out his binoculars to get a better look. "The one organizing the cannons is a major and the one on the turrets is manned by a minor." He reported.

"Lucky for us, no chieftains." Winters said a bit relieved to find that there were only the two low level brutes.

"Something's going on, sir." Leonard said watching the minor brute. The alien was sniffed at the air.

"Damn, move to cover." Winters ordered. The marines all moved to cover as the brute roared out. "He caught our sent." Winters muttered as the brute opened fire and was soon followed by the groups of grunts that hade been sleeping in trenches that had been dug around the hill.

"What are your orders?" Leonard asked looking over at the Lieutenant beside him.

"Did you notice what kind of cannons they had?" Winters asked ducking down as a shot hit near him.

"Yeah, two anti-aircraft cannons and three for repelling ground forces." Leonard replied.

"Can those land cannons be used this close?" Winters asked. "Can we charge them or will be all get blown to bits?"

"Not this close. It would be too much of a risk to the actual cannon." Leonard answered.

"Alright, then what we need to do is destroy that turret before we can make our assault on the actual cannons." The Lieutenant thought aloud.

"Sir, I can take a small team, move up the left flank and take out that turret." Leonard volunteered.

Winters thought about it for a moment. "Alright, take two soldiers and we'll draw their fire." The Lieutenant decided.

Leonard nodded and then motioned to Steve and Allison. When they reached him he spoke. "We're going to take care of that turret." He said simply. The others nodded and followed him as he led them off. The three moved though the rocks until they were at the side of the covenant troops. "Once we start firing we won't have long to kill that brute so make your shots count." The others nodded and moved into position. They aimed their battle rifles at the minor brute aiming for bits for open flesh. "On my mark." Leonard whispered checking his aim. "Fire." He ordered before he opened fire. The bullets deflected off the brute's energy shield but it dropped down. The turret swung around to take aim at the smaller team. Allison and Steve moved to cover but Leonard stayed in place. He fired a second burst catching the brute's throat. It let out a choked roar as the wound bled as Leonard moved behind the same rock as Allison. The female solder moved out form the other side of the rock that was her cover and fired. The rounds tore though the brute's throat on the other side. The alien swayed angrily before falling. Allison ducked behind a rock just in time to avoid the shot of a carbine. "Shit, jackal marksmen." Leonard cursed.

He looked over at Steve and got an idea. He moved between the two rocks barely missing being shot by one of the jackals. "Head down the hill a bit; be sure the jackals see you." He ordered the other male marine.

Steve didn't question, just did. He moved down the hill dodging a few carbine shots before taking cover. He looked up and nodded as Leonard gave the signal to stay.

Leonard carefully moved to Allison's position being sure that the jackals didn't see him. He motioned to the other solder and they moved up higher. They moved a bit behind the jackals that had directed their attention to the marines at the base of the hill. Leonard removed a grenade from his belt and so did Allison. They armed the grenades and tossed them into the trench that the jackals were using for cover. The marines didn't wait around for the grenades to go off before they started to move down the hill. They heard two explosives and the carbine fire stop.

"Move up, capture those cannons." Leonard heard Winters order. Leonard joined up with Lorie and Keith as they advanced. The grunts were helpless against the precise shots of the ODST. They advanced and captured the first canon without much of a problem. Joe quickly attacked a large chunk of explosives to the cannon and in one great blast the cannon was knocked out. The second cannon went much the same. They ran into a problem at the third cannon. The grunts had gathered around the cannon creating a constant fire of plasma. The marines moved into the trenches to escape the shots.

"Now what?" Leonard asked counting heads to be sure no one had fallen. By his count everyone was there.

"What would you suggest we do?" Winters asked as he reloaded his battle rifle and also did a head check.

Leonard was a bit surprised but the question but he said the first plan that came to mind. "Well I would suggest that we wait until the shots slow and then pop up and pick them off one by one." He said.

Winters nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking. Grunts aren't very smart. Even if we start to kill them off they will still stick with this strategy." He said.

The strategy actually worked very well. Whenever the shots would slow a marine would pop up and cut down a grunt. In a matter of minutes there were only five grunts left. Seeing as there were so few left the remaining grunts broke formation and ran for their lives. With the attack stopped the marines climbed out of the trench and moved forward. There was an angry roar and the major brute came charging at the solders. It had dropped its weapons and gone into a blind rage. The brute tossed out several projectiles toward the marines. The spike grenades landed in the ground in the path of the marines. One landed in the ground in front of Allison. She didn't notice but Leonard did. He moved pushing the other soldier out of the way just in time. The grenade went off and Leonard felt something sharp but into his back and arm. He felt warm liquid seep from the wounds and run down his back. His right side went numb for a moment before it seemed to catch fire and burn.

Leonard woke to find his armor was still off line. He sat up slowly and looked around wonder how long he had been out. He found he was in a small run down building with the BG soldiers and the professor. "What happened?" He asked.

"Those bug dropped some things and we all got knocked out." Tucker replied. "Hey, how are you moving? You don't have any power."

"My armor doesn't have power; I'm still alive so I can still move." Leonard replied. "Though the weight of my armor makes me a bit slower."

"Dude, but robots can't move without power." Tucker said confused as to what the other solder meant. "Robots aren't alive ether."

"Who are you calling a robot?" Leonard said as he pulled off his helmet. He ran a hand through his hair and thought. "Where are the other civilians?"

Tucker was too stunned by the sight to speak so Tex answered. "They were killed. It seems the covenant didn't think they were worth keeping."

"What about my team?" He asked keeping the worry from his voice as he spoke. He no longer cared about much else besides the well being of his soldiers.

"The brutes took them some time ago." Tex replied. "I don't know why they left you."

Leonard moved to lean against a wall. "Well at least I know what my next move is." He said.

"What's that best friend?" Caboose asked moving closer to the cobalt soldier smiling happily.

"I'm going to get my team back." He said before putting his helmet back on. "Now we just have to wait." He said leaning back against the wall, drifting off to sleep.

From what the doctors told him he had been unconscious for three hours. Spikes from the grenade had pierced into his back and right arm. The team had successfully captured the last three guns once the second brute was dead. Once the ground forces had claimed the land the ODST were removed from the planet.

Leonard lay in the clean white bed disappointed in his first mission out as an ODST. He had failed to make it though uninjured.

Lieutenant Winters entered the room and Leonard gave him a left handed salute. "Sorry I can't salute you properly sir. My right arm is so pumped full of drugs it won't move." Leonard said.

"That's alright soldier, left is good enough." Winters replied. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Physically, not much, they keep me numb. Mentally, kind of bad." Leonard admitted.

"What's the problem? The mission was a success." Winters asked as he moved to the side of Leonard's bed.

"I let you down sir, and I'm sorry." Leonard said. "I got inured and became a burden to the team."

Winters sighed and shook his head. "There is no reason for you to be apologizing. You were protecting another soldier, that's not a bad thing." He assured him.

"I don't understand sir. I got injured and couldn't complete the mission." Leonard said.

"That's not true at all." Winters corrected. "We're marines, son. We're one big family and we protect each other. We don't leave our brothers and sisters to die on the battle field. We live and fight to protect humanity. Protecting a fellow soldier is part of what we do. You set a good example out there. You showed them you were willing to get hurt to protect them. Once we destroyed the cannons they set up guards around you and Born. That's what I was really looking for."

"Tricia was injured?" Leonard asked worried. "Is she alright? Is she going to be able to fight?"

Winters smiled to himself before replying. "She's fine, just was a bit to close to one of the brute's hits. She'll be good as new soon enough."

Leonard let out a sigh of relief. He then turned his attention back to the Lieutenant other words. "What is it you were looking for?"

"Loyalty, brotherhood, a leader." Winters replied simply. "The things that every team needs."

"And you found it?" Leonard asked.

"Did Brigs or Fisher give you any problems when they went off with you?" Winters asked.

"No, they followed my orders without question, sir." Leonard replied. "Did you find what you were looking for?" He asked again.

"I did." Winters replied before he left the room, leaving Leonard to think over what he had said.

~Chapter 9~

A/N: I want to thank everyone that has reviewed this story. You've all been very supportive and I really appreciate it. I know this was a really long chapter but I hope you enjoyed it. It was inspired by me watching an episode of Band of Brothers. Pleaser keep reading and reviewing.


	10. breaking out

A/N: I don't own anything from Red vs Blue or Halo.

Chapter 10

Leonard always hated the smell of brutes. The younger of the males released odors that reflected their emotions. Without his air filtering system on the smell of the agitated young brute filled Leonard's nostrils. His eyes shot open, instinct waking him as he felt there was danger near. He leaned forward glancing to the front of the makeshift cell. A blue armored brute approached the cell. It was obviously the one that the smell was pouring from. Brutes were hideous beasts from a distance but they were even uglier up close. The brute turned off the device that created the electrified wall of the cell and turned to Leonard.

"On your feet." The minor ordered pointing his mauler at the marine. Leonard stood up slowly a bit agitated by the weight of his armor. He was led by the brute out of the building and into a courtyard. The ground was littered with broken armor that Leonard knew was his teams. He spotted the marines laying facedown on the ground. Their outer armor was gone leaving the marines with only the black under layer. The brute stopped Leonard in the center of the courtyard where a pole that once bore the Earth flag had stood. Three brutes stepped forward and removed his armor with force. Once the last of the steel and cobalt armor was gone they moved him over to the other marines. Leonard was relieved to find that his team was alive.

"Down on the ground." A brute shouted. Leonard did as he was instructed running through his strategic options in his head. There were three brutes guarding them, each carrying one mauler. From what he'd seen there were only a few brutes making rounds ever ten minutes. They had underestimated his team and they would pay for it. 'Alpha, can you jump to the others to give orders?' He asked the AI.

There was a pause before the AI's voice echoed through Leonard's head. "I can manage it. Just tell me who to tell and what."

Leonard quickly told the AI his orders. While the guards were not looking Alpha moved between soldiers. Once he'd returned to Leonard he readied to set the plan in action. "Now." Leonard muttered. Alpha jumped out of Leonard appearing in the center of the marines.

"Cobalt is ten times meaner then green." He announced. The brutes aimed and fired on the hologram. The shots passed right through him causing two of the brutes to shoot each other. Andrew and Natalie jumped up grabbing the last brute's arm that held the mauler and pointed it down. Paul moved around to the brute's back jumping up and wrapping his arms around the beast's neck. It let out a choked roar as the marine pulled back, choking it. It released the mauler as it struggled. Tricia snatched up the weapon, shoving it against the brute's neck just as Paul let go. She fired off three rounds strait into the unprotected flesh. The brute fell back dead as blood poured from the wound.

"Alright, Allison, Paul, and Brandon. Look though the armor for any useful parts. Lorie, Steve, and Douglas, find out weapons. They have to be around here. Andrew, Keith, go free out friends." Leonard ordered. "Natalie, Tricia, you're with me. Let's take care of the rest of the brutes." The soldiers nodded and moved off.

Natalie and Leonard grabbed the two remaining maulers and moved off. They crouched beside one of the buildings. The guards would be coming up in a matter of minutes. "Alright, here's the plan. I'll play rabbit and draw them over here when they are close enough open fire." He explained.

"Sir, I can play the rabbit." Tricia spoke up. "You and Natalie are better shots. That's why you're in cobalt team."

Leonard paused, unsure if he wanted to put one of his soldiers in that kind of danger. "Fine, you'll play rabbit. Just led them around the corner, nothing fancy." He ordered.

"Yessir." Tricia replied. She moved out from behind the building. The two brutes that were patrolling stopped as they spotted her. "Hey ya big ape wanabees. You must be bigger fools then your prophets to think that you could beat us." She taunted.

The brutes roared in anger and fired. Tricia dodged the shots running back behind the building laughing. The brutes chased after her their feet creating a thudding beat as they moved. They rounded the corner to find Natalie and Leonard aiming right at them. They emptied their weapons into the brutes killing both of them. "Note to self, Tricia makes a good rabbit." Leonard remarked earning a grin from Tricia.

The three returned to the courtyard. The Blood Gulch soldiers stood looking rather nervous. "Report." Leonard ordered looking to Allison and Steve.

"Found our weapons. They were a bit dirty but not to bad." Steve reported. "Guess they still don't know how to really like to work with our weapons."

"Some of the armor is usable. The chest plates and helmets are really the only thing that are undamaged for the most part. They totally crushed the arm and leg armor and it is useless." Allison reported.

"Alright, see that the useful armor is passed out. Be sure everyone gets back the appropriate weapons." Leonard ordered. " I'm going to have a chat with Alpha." He added. As the solders went to their tasks Leonard sat down on a chuck of rock. 'Alright, what can you tell me?'

"Not much." Alpha replied. "I can tell you that the covenant is no longer being quiet about being here. From what I can tell a loyalist cruiser is orbiting on the other side of the planet. They are attacking the base, that I know."

"Shit." Leonard cursed aloud. "Double time it soldiers. The loyalist are attacking Eternal Bliss." Leonard informed them.

The marines hurried to get fitted with the correct helmets and chest armor. They made sure the blood gulch soldiers got weapons and extra ammunition. "Alright, we're splitting up from here." Leonard announced. "Brigs will take steel team, the local soldiers, and the professor to the dig sight. There was something there and you have to find it. Cobalt team and sapphire team are going with me. We're going to run those loyalists out of our base and the town." He instructed. "Good luck steel team." Leonard said before he led off Sapphire and cobalt team.

The others watched them leave until they were no longer visible. Allison then turned to the Blood Gulch soldiers. "Alright, let's get moving." She ordered.

"Who put you in charge?" Corp asked. "I don't remember agreeing to let you led."

"The staff sergeant just put me in charge. You don't get a say." Allison replied glaring at the corporal.

"Yeah but Tex is a higher rank then you. Shouldn't she be in charge?" Donut asked.

"All I know is I was put in charge. I don't know about her but I have experience leading a team." Allison said.

Tex stepped in. "Would you all be quiet." She ordered to the Blood Gulch solders. "Just do what she says. Church left her in charge."

"Thank you, now let's get moving." Allison ordered. They reluctantly moved off into the forest.

"How do we know we're going in the right direction?" Simmons asked as they moved after the marines.

"Alpha gave us a nav marker." Allison explained. "It will lead us right to the sight."

It took them about 15 minutes of walking to reach the sight. The area was crawling with grunts and drones while a single brute barked orders.

Allison looked over the situation deciding on what to do. Tex moved up to her side. "So what's the plan?" She asked.

Allison glanced over at her though her face shield. "You and the other local soldiers-"

Tex cut her off. "Oh no. I cam here to fight not stand around and do nothing." Tex said. "The others can stay here but I sure as hell am not."

Allison sighed. "Alright, the others will stay with the professor. Me, you, and steel team will clear out those grunts." She paused. "How good are you at driving a warthog?"

"You mean the puma?" Grif asked. "I'm good at that." He said.

"Alright, now we're in the business." Allison said.

~End chapter 10~

A/N: Please read and review.


	11. the past

A/N: I don't own anything from Halo, Red vs Blue, or any of the Band of Brother references.

Leonard had been surprised how fast he'd become used to the feeling of a drop. It had been almost a year since his first drop but now he didn't even notice as his pod was released. He no longer feared the long wait until his pod started to slow. He didn't even notice when he entered the atmosphere. His bones didn't feel like they were going to shatter as his pod hit the ground. As the front hatch jettisoned Leonard had his SMG up and ready to fire. The area was clear of any targets though two other pods had landed near by. Leonard jumped out of the pod grabbing his supplies. As he moved across the field he was joined by Steve and Allison. They hopped a fence and slid into a ditch beside the road. They moved along the ditch soon joined by Keith and Andrew. The ground was soft under their feet as they moved along the ditch. Ahead they could see the rising smoke undoubtedly coming from their target. The main big city had been captured by the loyalist a few days before and they were now taking back the surrounding smaller towns. Leonard halted as they reached the edge of the town and the ditch ended connecting to the sewer.

"How far are we from the rendezvous point?" Leonard asked looking back at Keith. Their pods had landed in the wrong place. They had been dropped in the outer farming area, though there was nothing left of the wheat fields. They'd been burned right away by the covenant when they'd invaded.

"About a mile and a half north." Keith replied. "Though the only way there is through a ton of open field. We'd be sitting ducks."

"That's not the only way." Leonard corrected. "We're just lucky that the Lieutenant gave us the full layout of the town." He said bringing up the layout on his HUD. "Andrew, help with this grate." The two marines pulled off the grate to the sewer tossing it to the side. They moved into the underground tunnel with Leonard in the lead and Steve taking the rear. Leonard lead them through the maze of underground passages stopping at one of the short tunnels that lead up to a man hole. "I'm going to check that we're on the right path." He said before climbing up the ladder and pushing the man hole cover up. He peeked out glancing around for any land marks. He spotted a wraith tank surrounded by a patrol group. Leonard set the cover back in place. He moved down to the others. "We're on the right track." He reported. He then led them onward. They removed another grate and exited out into another ditch.

"Now, how far are we from the rendezvous point?" Leonard asked once they were out of the sewers.

"It's right on the other side of the road." Keith replied. After being sure that they wouldn't be spotted the five soldiers moved across the street and slid into the ditch.

"What took you so long?" Winters asked as he spotted the five. "We've been waiting forever for your asses."

"Sorry sir, we were dropped a bit farther then anticipated. I did find out that there are some wraith tanks." Leonard reported. "Exactly how many I don't know."

Winders nodded. "We'll need to take out those wraith tanks. We can't make  
our ground assault until they are neutralized." He paused for a moment. "What is that ungodly sent?"

"Sorry sir, that's probably me. We had to use the sewers to get here." Leonard explained.

"Maybe you and Alpha team would like to make another trip down there." Winters said though the tone of his voice made it obvious that there was no choice.

Fifteen minutes later Leonard, Allison, and Steve stood waiting for the boom. It followed a few seconds later as a dull thud that shook though the sewers nearly dislodging the manhole cover. Leonard connected his radio to one of the metal pipes that ran along the top of the sewer. They had already made a connection to the rest of the team though the same pipe before they had set off. "This is Alpha team reporting in."

"I have you Alpha team. What's your status?" Winters asked over the radio link. "How many tanks have you taken out?"

"Sir, mission is completed. The last of the wraiths have been destroyed." Leonard reported.

"Well double time it back here. We're going to make our assault on the town." Winters ordered.

"Will do sir, Alpha team out." Leonard replied cutting off the connection. "We're heading back. Be ready to charge into hell." He ordered. The others nodded and followed Leonard as they made their way out of the sewer. They had found five wraith tanks and one by one had set explosives in their path. The black cases they had put the explosives in had matched perfectly with the roads and the lookouts hadn't seen them till the wraiths were over them and they became a ball of fire. They joined back up with the rest of the troops waiting in the ditches outside the town.

"Alright, Church, You'll take Fisher, Brigs, Willson, Sorn, and Smith with you. You'll take the East side of the city. Everyone else is with me. We're going to take the West side." Winters ordered.

"Yessir." The soldiers chorused. They split up into their two groups to wreak havoc. It didn't' turn out to be as fun as Leonard had hoped. It turned out to be mostly just checking that buildings were empty. Without the wraith tanks the forces in the area were no match for the ODST. They ran into only two brutes before making it to the court house that was where the two teams were to meet up. They now sat taking cover behind chest high walls.

Lorie moved over to where Leonard was taking cover. "Sir, we have a problem." She reported.

"What is it?" Leonard asked as he glanced around his cover at the courthouse. There was a pair of shades stationed at the front of the building keeping them away from the entrance.

"Lieutenant Winters had been injured. Korton and Borm are moving him out of the town for safety." She reported. "He said you were in charge."

"I'm confused, where's the problem in this?" Leonard asked but there was no reply. "That's what I thoughts. Alright, I've looked over the building and I have a plan. Lorie, go tell Allison to get over here." The marine nodded and then moved off to get Allison. "Once Allison gets here I'll tell you the plan." Leonard said turning to Steve who was beside him. "What's wrong?" He asked noticing that Steve was looking at him confused.

"Why were you looking at the building? Not to mention you came up with that plan rather fast." Steve replied.

"I always come up with a plan. The Lieutenant always asks me for a plan." Leonard answered. Allison arrived and he laid out his plan. Allison and Leonard moved off to gather their teams and get to work.

Four minutes later the teams had moved into position. Leonard had long ago established steel, sapphire, and cobalt teams and he always used them in his plans. It has taken him weeks to get Allison and Steve to stop asking why he'd chosen those colors but they eventually gave up. He never wanted any of his fellow ODST to find out about Blood Gulch. Sure he'd complained about Tucker and Caboose but he'd never told them he was part of blue team. He was still ashamed of having been fooled for so long, for not having questioned their command, and for not having cared. He found it odd that he'd gone from such a boring job to where he was. Sure the sewer he stood in wasn't much better then Blood Gulch but as soon as the thermite paste finished burning a hole in the ceiling above him he would see more combat then he'd ever seen in that canyon. The mission timer on his HUD ticked down to 45 seconds. As soon as the light diminished Leonard climbed up the ladder to the glowing red circle in the steel. He set his back against the steel and pushed up. The place came loose with a snap and he set it aside. He pushed it the rest out the way away from the hole and looked around. Once he was sure the area was clear he motioned down to his team. He pulled himself up into the room moving over into the shadows. Keith and Natalie followed him melting into the shadows with him. His mission timer clicked to 15 seconds as Leonard moved his team forward to wait outside the main entrance. From the looks of the place it was their main base of operations. It explained why the building hadn't been destroyed when the loyalist had arrived. Five brutes stood around a single rectangular desk that had most likely been taken from a different room. The brutes all spoke in hushed voices pointing at the table where they had likely laid out a map. Leonard's mission timer clicked to zero and the soldiers moved forward. Just as the brutes were turning toward the three soldiers the class dome above shattered and Steel team dropped down. The brutes were distracted long enough for Steel team to drop down to a safe level. They disconnected from their lines dropping down onto four of the brutes. With the barrels of their dual SMGs flat against the beast's necks they emptied their weapons.

Leonard took his chance as the brutes were distracted to activate and stick the final brute with a plasma grenade he had grabbed off a killed grunt. Steel team scrambled to cover as soon as they'd finished, just in time to avoid the blast of the plasma grenade. Keith and Natalie had aimed their fire at the grunts that manned the stationary guns splattering the turrets with blood. The fire kept the jackals who were taking cover behind the series of columns near the entrance from returning fire. Leonard flashed his green status light twice giving sapphire team their cue. He moved and kicked the table onto its side as he and the rest of Cobalt team took cover behind it and got as low down as they could. Gun fire filled the room as sapphire team moved through the room. Once they firing had stopped cobalt and steel team joined up with sapphire team. After sweeping the building the injured soldiers were brought in and the courthouse was turned into a medical  
bay.

Leonard sat beside Lieutenant Winters who had a rather bad wound on his side. "So what's next sir?' Leonard asked. They couldn't go on without their CO.

"You tell me soldier." Winters replied. "I'm too injured to continue. Sucks this is how my last mission had to end with you."

Leonard looked at him surprised by his words. "What do you mean your last mission with me?"

Winters took a deep breath before he replied. "You couldn't have thought I was going to stay with the team forever." Leonard looked away frowning. He knew that Winters wasn't going to be a part of the team forever but he didn't want to admit it. "Church, I'm promoting you to the rank of Sergeant, the paper work is already going though. You'll be in charge of the team. You have to complete the mission and recapture the city."

"Are you sure about that sir? I mean I don't know if I'm ready?" Leonard asked. He had to admit that after Blood Gulch he'd been a bit afraid of being in charge.

Winters sighed and shifted to ease the pain in his side. "You need to stop doubting yourself. You've been their leader form the start. I've kept myself distant from them, always used their last name, and never treated them as anything more then subordinates. I don't think I've ever once heard you call them by their last names." Winters said pausing to take a few deep breaths. "You captured this town. Now you just have to do it on a bigger scale."

Leonard nodded. "Yessir." He said before standing up. He exited the courthouse. Allison and Steve soon joined him. "You're both being promoted to corporals. I'll push though the paper work after we're done." He informed them. They quickly saluted him and they joined up with their team. The solders had all replenished their ammunition and were ready. Leonard looked up at the city and felt almost over whelmed. As their leader he no longer had the luxury of showing it. "Alright, here's the plan." He began.

As Leonard looked down at the New Jerusalem city that was under loyalist attack he felt that same feeling of being over whelmed. They were low on ammunition, lacking steel team, and way out numbered. Leonard took a deep breath before speaking. "Alright, here's the plan."

~End chapter 11~

A/N: Please read and review.


	12. claring the way

A/N: I don't own Halo or Red vs Blue but I do love both of them.

Chapter 12

The puma shot over the hill and sped down the hill. "Hell yeah." Grif shouted as he navigated the vehicle down toward the loyalist troops. The brute roared and the grunts and jackals all turned their weapons toward the puma. "You can start shooting any time."

"Just drive." Simmons snapped back as he aimed. He started firing and the grunts fell while the jackals hid behind their shields.

The jackals and shades opened fire on the puma and Grif turned heading away from the loyalists. "Grif, quit being a coward." Corp shouted.

"I don't want to die. If you want to then go ahead and jump out and face them." Grif snapped not in the mood to be distracted from his driving.

"On second though, drive." Corp replied. "Keep covering our asses Simmons." Corp shouted to the maroon soldier who was still firing toward the loyalists.

"Aw, I'm missing out on all of the fun." Donut complained pouting as he slumped against the tree beside him.

"Oh it's no big deal. They'll probably just get killed then that not Tex will blow up those turrets and slaughter the brutes." Tucker said. "I'd much rather be here just watching."

"That does seem like the safer choice." Caboose agreed. "This way there are less people trying to kill us."

"Yeah, instead of a ton of aliens angry and shooting at us we only have Tex who's angery and wants to shot us." Sister said glancing back at the female Sergeant.

"Oh she's just mad because she has to watch us. She may want to shoot us but she's not allowed to." Tucker said.

"You know I could always make it look like you shot yourself. No one would question it." Tex pointed out.

"I'm just going to shut up." Tucker said moving a bit farther away from Tex. He wasn't stupid enough to anger the woman and then stay within hitting range.

There were tree explosions taking out the shades. Steel team opened fire cutting down the grunts and jackals. The covenant turned their attention to the marines just as the warthog made another pass. Simmons opened fire mowing down grunts. With the combined fire from the warthog and Steel team the covenant troops were cut down.

The reds pulled the warthog around to the entrance of the tunnel as the blues joined them. "I told you we could do it." Corp stated confidently.

"Actually only Grif and Simmons did anything. You just sat in the shotgun and yelled at them." Tucker pointed out.

"Yeah, I was leading. That's how you lead, by putting others and danger and telling them that they aren't doing their job good enough." Corp informed him.

"Shut up, both of you." Allison snapped annoyed by their arguing. "Corp, get out of the jeep. The doctor will be riding in the puma."

"What? No, I always ride shotgun." Corp argued reluctant to leave his favorite place in the vehicle or admit that the soldier had just called it a puma.

"You do remember she's our superior, and that if she kills you only Simmons will say anything and from past experience it will probably only be that you wanted him to take your place." Grif said rather enjoying the look that crossed the corporal's face. Corp paused for a moment glancing at Grif before he climbed out. The professor climbed in. "Welcome to the puma. I'll try to drive as smooth as I can."

"That's alright, I don't' mind a rough ride." The professor replied smiling slightly at the orange solider beside her.

"Bow Chika Bow Wow." Tucker said causing Allison to punch him. "What the hell was that for? I didn't do anything wrong."

"Sergeant's orders. If you say that in our presence we are supposed to hit you." Allison explained. "Now limber up boys were going to get moving."

"Wait, what do you mean by limber up? That doesn't sound as sexy as it should." Tucker asked confused as to what they were going to be doing.

"That's because it means we're running." Tex stated. "If you haven't noticed there's only one vehicle and it only has three seats."

"It's times like this I'm glad I drive." Grif commented felling a bit smug as he leaned back in his driver's seat taunting the soldiers that would soon be running.

"No kidding, you can only run a few feet before being out of breath." Simmons snapped at the other soldier.

"Oh be quiet kiss ass. I drive because you and Corp can't do it as good as me." Grif shot back not about to let the other soldier get away with the comment.

"That's the same thing your sister said last night to Tucker." Simmons shot back knowing that his sister was Grif's weak spot.

"I told you it wasn't cool to joke about that." Grif snapped about ready to attack the maroon soldier behind him.

"Who's joking? You do realize that Tucker's a pervert and your sister is a total slut. Claiming that the two of them living in the same base and not getting it on would be a lie." Simmons said.

"I can't believe that we have to run. I can't believe we found a version of Tex that's even more of a bitch." Tucker complained.

"They aren't the same person you know. Only one of them has been to Blood Gulch." Corp pointed out not at all pleased that he would be running.

"Well congratulations to the one that avoided that hell hole. Then again both of them have had to put up with Church so I still pity both of them." There was another hit to the back of Tucker's head at his words from Brandon.

"Who wants to help me stretch?" Donut asked innocently muttering something about how he should have brought his shorts with him.

"Don't." Both Simmons and Grif shouted a warning to all the other soldiers. They'd fallen for that once and it hadn't ended well.

"You know I thought Sarge was kidding when he talked about these guys." Brandon said shaking his head grabbing a few spike grenades from a brute and grabbing a few more tossing them to Paul.

"It's worse then we could have ever imagined. They aren't just a headache that makes life hard, they are brain tumor causing annoying." Paul agreed.

"I can understand why command didn't give them matching weapons and ammunition." Allison said securing the channel between the three of them. "If these guys become too much of a hassle we might need to come up with some way to leave them behind. We can't fail in our mission and let the Sergeant down." The other two flashed their green status light in agreement. Allison slammed her fist against the side of the puma to get Grif's attention. "Get moving; just make sure you don't pass the target."

"Don't' worry, you can trust me not to go farther then I have to." Grif assured her. "Hold on tight Doctor." He said before the puma took off into the tunnel.

"Yeah, I'm going to walk." Tucker said watching Donut start skipping down the tunnel. Tucker started walking down the tunnel followed by Caboose, Sister, and Sarge.

"You know after all this time I understand why Church hates Tucker so much." Tex said shaking her head. "I didn't spend as much time as him in Blood Gulch so I didn't have to put up with him for as long."

"Paul, go protect the puma. Brandon and I will keep these idiots from swallowing their tongues. Keep your radio on." Allison ordered. Paul nodded and ran off after the puma.

"What I wouldn't give for soldiers like him." Tex said with a slightly sad sigh. "How do I get a soldier like that and is he any good for other things?" She asked suggestively.

"To get soldiers like him you have to be a soldier that does real military work. As for other uses, I wouldn't know but you're free to try to convince him to show you if he has any other talents." Allison replied walking beside the other female solider.

"You know I wanted to ask you guys something." Tex said after a few minutes. "How much do you know about Church?"

"We know all the important information, though some of us know him better then others." Allison admitted.

"Dude, what is it with Church and hooking up with girls that are bitches and named Allison. Not to mention how do you do it with a robot?"

"This is the last time that I'm going to tell you that the Sergeant is not a robot. He's a human, I'm completely sure of that." Allison said.

"So you and him have been together?" Tex asked looking strait ahead trying ignoring the laughing of Tucker.

"So what if we have been. It's not like it's the business of any of you." Allison replied reluctant to tell them anything.

"How wrong is it that Church has two girls fighting over him but I can only get Sister when I've gotten her on that toilet alcohol at the base?" Tucker asked.

"We aren't fighting over him. Church and I are through and what he does with his second in command doesn't matter to me." Tex stated. "Though wouldn't something like that cause a problem with the other soldiers? I mean guys like Brandon, don't they get jealous?"

"I don't really have any desire to sleep with the Sergeant so no, I'm not jealous." Brandon answered chuckling a bit to himself.

"That's not what I meant. I mean more like do you ever think that she was only promoted to second in command because she was sleeping with him?" Tex asked.

"We didn't fool around until after I became his second in command. It was only once or twice and it didn't really mean anything. I don't have to sleep with people to get where I am." Allison defended.

"I'm trying to figure out why I would think that that is why she was promoted. I always though it was because of her ability to lead, of skill in battle, or her will to do what we have to in order to complete the mission. That's like asking why Steve is also a corporal." Brandon said.

"So Steve is also sleeping with Church?" Tucker asked jokingly kicking at the small rocks as he walked. He really hated how boring this cave was.

"Actually, he's just always been his second in command, always the one that he turned to when he needed back up. Been that way since before he was our Sarge." Brandon said. "I've actually never questioned why he trusts ether one of them."

"Seems that there's a lot of stuff he isn't telling you. Are you sure that you really know him because it seems like he was keeping some important information from you." Tucker said.

"What kind of information might he be keeping from us?" Allison said. It had struck her as odd how Leonard had tried to avoid the subject.

"Tread lightly Tucker. You tell them something that he doesn't want people to know he'll probably kill you." Tex warned.

"I think he's keeping important stuff like him dying from you. Or how about the fact that he's not human?" Tucker said receiving a glare from Tex.

"He has died a few times working with us. That's what CPR and portable defibrillators are for." Allison pointed out. "As for not being human, I figured he wasn't normal. According to what we were told we only have this armor because it's part of some project and Sergeant said he was pretty sure he knew what project it was about. When we asked about the project he said it was something that he was part of before he became our Sarge. He said though that it wasn't an active project any more. Most people that are involved in UNSC projects tend to not be normal."

"Part of the project? I'm guessing he was talking about the freelancer project in which case he wasn't part of it, he was the focus." Tucker said. "Man he's been keeping a lot from you guys."

"That's enough Tucker. Anything else they want to learn they can ask Church directly." Tex said ending the conversation.

"Ma'am, we've reached the destination. The professor is going to examine the area while we wait for you." Paul reported in. "Oh, and you left your radio on. I didn't know you and Sarge had a thing."

Allison ignored the other soldier's last comment. "Understood Paul, Watch out for the professor and try not to let those two you took with you mess things up." Allison ordered.

"I don't' think they'll be a problem. The two of them just stand around and argue like an old married couple. Like Lorie and that Captain we're sure she's seeing on the side. I'm more worried about these two going off to make out rather then causing trouble." Paul answered.

"Great, so you should be able to handle it. We'll be joining you shortly." Allison informed him cutting the connection and turning to Tucker. "What else do we not know about our Sergeant?"

~End chapter 12~

A/N: Well there's chapter 12. Sorry for such a long wait but I've been busy with other fics. I know this one is a bit wordy but I needed to establish some things and basicly what's up with the BG soldiers and steel team. Next chapter will be about the others and it will be more exciting. Please in the meanwhile read and review.


	13. First assault

Cobalt Army Chapter 13

Sapphire team took cover in a series of buildings. "Damn those war chieftains have us pinned down." Lorie muttered as another fuel rod shoot flew through the air. "So then what's the plan?"

"Why are you asking me?" Steve asked ducking as debris fell from above them as a shot hit the building they were in. "Why don't you ask the Sergeant what the plan is?" He snapped slamming a new clip into his Battle rifle. The War chieftains were gathered at the end of the street. There were three of them with one chieftain and a grav hammer keeping the soldiers pinned down.

"What is the plan Sarge?" Lorie asked leaning back against the wall. The brutes weren't advancing so they could sit and wait for a little while.

"Give me a moment I'm working on it." Leonard said going back to his planning. The city had been crawling with more covies then they had expected. They had seen covenant gunfire but they hadn't expected the war chieftains or the three wraith tanks that were here and there in the city. They needed to get the drop on the war chieftains and needed to take their fuel rod guns if they were going to be able to take out the tanks. Leonard turned off his outer speakers and radio to have a little chat with Alpha. "I can't do my special little trick any more can I?" Leonard asked Alpha.

"If you are referring to your old trick of possessing people then no, you cannot. If you were to try to leave this body it would die. You have to remember that this body is alive unlike the other robot bodies you used to have." Alpha answered.

"Well then could you give it a try? We need to get the drop on them and possession is just about the only way that I can think of doing it that would be safe." Leonard explained.

"I can not overshadow people. When I became me and you became you I lost that ability. Maybe next time don't choose the body that's alive." Alpha suggested.

"You're just jealous because you're not alive." Leonard stated. "Well then we'll have to go with my back up plan." He decided turning his radio back on. For once he wished one of the idiot soldiers were around so that he could use them as a decoy. "Keith, Natalie, go find yourselves some well hidden hiding spots." He ordered. "Steve, take Andrew and Joe and I want you guys to make your way around back behind the chieftains. When I order it try to take out the main chieftain. We'll take care of the war chieftains." Leonard ordered.

"Yes sir." The soldiers replied moving off to do as they were ordered. Steve gathered his two soldiers and then started to move along the side streets and through the buildings to get around the chieftains. Keith made his way up to the roof of a house keeping low down to get a good angle at the war chieftains. Natalie moved up to the third story window of an office building triple checking the placement of her rifle. Leonard stayed in the building he was in setting up his sniper rifle on the second floor.

"We are in place Sarge." Steve reported. He, Andrew, and Joe were crouched behind a series of concrete walls that lined a law firm behind the brutes.

Leonard double checked his rifle and flashed a light to cobalt team. Both Keith and Natalie flashed back green status lights. "Alright Steve have at it whenever you are ready." Leonard ordered.

Steve and his team stood up just far enough to take aim on the back of the chieftain. They opened fire and the rounds pinged off of the chieftain's shield slowly draining it. The large brute turned around toward them and roared in anger. "Keep up the fire." Steve ordered and the brute started to charge them. They kept up the steady stream of bullets until their clips were empty. "Fall back and reload." Steve ordered. The three moved out of the way as the chieftain swung its hammer down hitting the concrete wall and cracking it apart. They quickly reloaded and turned to the brute. They opened fire and the brute started to shimmer and shine. "Damn he turned on his damn overshield. Fall back to cover and wait for it to wear off." Steve ordered. The three fell back as the chieftain continued to chase them. "You actually going to take care of those war chieftains?"

There were six rapid shots and the war chieftains who had all turned to see what the other chieftain was attacking fell. The double shots of the three snipers had shattered their skulls and helmets with ease. The remaining chieftain didn't even notice that his fellow brutes had fallen. Tricia and Lorie moved down the street with as much speed as they could grabbing up two of the fuel rod guns and then running back down the street to where Leonard was waiting. "You two stay here with those. Steve keep the chieftain's attention, we'll come save your ass in a second." Leonard ordered.

"Well I don't think this thing really wants to take its attention off of us. I would like it if you would hurry up though with that whole you know, saving thing. I don't really want to be a nail." Steve said dodging to the side as the chieftain took a swing at him the alien's hammer hitting a wall and sending large cracks up the side of the building.

Leonard took off down the street grabbing up the remaining fuel rod gun as he ran. He hefted it onto his shoulder and took aim at the chieftain. He let off one shot just as the brute's overshield dropped. The shot hit it in the center of its back melting away parts of the brute's armor and burning away hair and flesh on its exposed parts. It roared in pain and turned to face Leonard. Steve, Andrew, and Joe opened fire on the now unshielded brute and the rounds tore into the flesh. It took one step toward Leonard before it fell to the ground. "Told you I was going to save your ass." Leonard stated. "Let's get moving. We have to get rid of those tanks. If there are any survivors left there won't be many more if we don't take care of them now."

"Yes sir." The three soldiers answered. The group moved down the street to meet back up with Tricia and Lorie. Natalie and Keith had already returned.

"Alright, Steve, you're taking Tricia and Joe and taking one tank as Delta. Keith, Lorie, and Natalie to take the second tank you'll be Beta. I'll take Andrew and we'll take care of the last tank, we're Alpha team. Meet up at the church that we saw a few streets back once you are done." Leonard ordered. His soldiers nodded and they moved off.

Delta team~

Steve led his team down the street following the path of large plasma burns that covered the sides of buildings. The covenant were going back to their old way, just killing whatever got in the way. It wasn't hard to find the wraith tank. It was sitting in one place shooting into a building over and over. "Think there are survivors in there?" Joe asked.

"If there were there probably aren't any more." Steve stated. "Alright Tricia, blow the thing to pieces. We've got your back."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Tricia said moving forward and moving the fuel rod gun up onto her shoulder taking aim. It was an easy target just sitting there. She let off two quick shots and they both hit the tank in the rear perfectly. Metal melted and after a few seconds the internal parts of the tank exploded like a firework. "That's my favorite part. It's like they're congratulating us." Tricia observed.

"They were even nice enough to make it the right color." Joe agreed. "Damn we got brutes coming at 10:45." He warned.

"Dude would you say a normal time. Like just say 11 o'clock." Tricia snapped glaring at the other soldier as she switched out to her battle rifle.

"Forget what time just run for it. We have to meet up with the others." Steve said leading his team away through the city to make their way back to the church.

~Beta team~

"It's moving steadily down the street." Lorie reported. "I still think that I should be the one doing the shooting." She complained. "You guys got to kill the war chieftains so I should get to kill the tank."

"Brutes and heavy armored vehicles are very different." Keith pointed out. "I'm the better sniper so I should be the one taking the shot."

"Fuel rod guns and sniper rifles are very different." Natalie pointed out. "I got the highest score in the testing with one of these so I'm taking the shot and that's final." She declared bracing herself against the desk and aiming just where she wanted. They were couched in a small building that had once been used for some sort of business but it was hard to tell what for now. The papers were all burnt, tables and chairs destroyed, and a few burned bodies of people that had once worked there lay about. The wraith tank was slowly making its way down the street and they had decided to take the easiest way out, and just wait for it to come to them.

It took only a minute for the tank to move into place. Natalie quickly let off two shots hitting the side of the tank. As soon as the anitgravity shut off and it was obvious that it was out of commission the soldiers moved through the building and out the back. The faint muffle of the wraith exploding could be heard but they ignored it moving down the streets as unnoticed as they could manage.

~Alpha team~

"Figures that we would end up with this tank." Andrew stated peeking around the corner at the wraith tank that was their target. "So then how are we going to get to it?"

The problem they had was the series of shields that had been set up around the tank to protect it while three blue armored brutes sat around rather bored with a pair of red armored brutes fighting hand to hand and a golden armored brute watching all of them. "I'm not sure yet. Distraction won't work, they wouldn't all follow and then we'd also have brutes chasing us. If we killed the leader then the others would just turn on us and try to prove that they should be the new leader, wouldn't work out for us. We might have to go a stealth path here." Leonard decided.

"Nether of us are steel team. Stealth isn't really my strong point." Andrew admitted. "How would that help us any way?"

"We'd be assassinating them. I know you're not very good at it, that's why you've got to take the fuel rod gun. When I've killed them all, or if I order you to, you'll have to charge down there and  
destroy the tank, or anything that's about to kill me." Leonard instructed handing the fuel rod gun over to Andrew.

"I'm not really too good with one of these ether. That's Joe's thing." Andrew stated. "I could barely hit the broad side of a barn."

"That's alright, you just have to hit the broad side of a tank. Not to hard if you get close enough. I wouldn't have asked it of you if I didn't think that you could do it." Leonard said. "Now suck it up soldier and get ready."

"Yes sir." Andrew replied moving the fuel rod gun up to his shoulder to wait for the Sergeant's signal. He took a few deep breaths a bit nervous. Leonard was putting a lot of trust in his abilities, more trust then Andrew had in them.

Leonard moved from shadow to shadow trying to stay as silent as he could. "Do you think that the private can do it?" Alpha asked.

"I meant what I said Alpha. I asked him to do it because he can. He's an ODST, we can do whatever we have to if we have to and he'll have to." Leonard answered moving behind a wall deciding which brute to take out first.

"Stealth was never your thing ether." Alpha pointed out. "Part of the reason why the Director didn't go into the battle field. He just never had the skill for stealth."

"Well I'm not the Director." Leonard pointed out. "I've got some skill with it. I just don't usually have the patience for it. I really only need to stealth kill a few of them. I can kill the rest right out." Leonard said taking out his combat knife. He peeked over the wall spotting two of the blue brutes that were watching the red brutes fight each other. The third blue brute was sitting on the side of the wraith tank. They would be easy kills as long as he did them quickly. The problem was that it was hard to stealth kill a brute. Their skin was thick, their spines hard to cut through, and slicing one's neck was more like trying to cut through a steak. It best chance was to try to sever their spines as quickly as he could if he wanted to get it done quickly. He moved forward as slowly as he could manage and then jumped up onto the brute's back stabbing his knife into the brute's spine and then pulling it out dropping as quickly as he could to move on to the next brute doing the same action. At this point the final blue brute had stood up and turned to face Leonard. He ran past the brute jumping up onto the wraith then up onto the brute's back and stabbing it in the back of the neck. The third blue brute fell and Leonard jumped off.

The red brutes turned and roared at him and charged. Leonard moved out of the way moving away using the shields to block the hits from the brutes. He stood, knife at the ready as the moved around the shields to get at him. He sliced out hitting one of the brutes in the leg dodging as the second one tried to hit him. His knife slid through the side of the brute's arm easily before Leonard backed away. He moved forward suddenly driving his blade up into neck of the brute with the injured leg. He felt it hit and break through bone as the brute struggled. He kept pushing it in deeper until the brute finally stopped moving. Leonard set one foot against the dead brute's neck and used it to pull the blade free. He fell rolling out of the way of the second brute just in time. He put away his blade and grabbed the dead brute's mauler firing off three times point blank into the other brute. The shots took down its shield and made a nice hold in the front of its armor killing it.

The gold armored brute moved forward brute shot in hand and his eyes set on Leonard. Leonard dropped the mauler picking up a pair of spikers. "Andrew any time you want to would be a good time to destroy the tank." Leonard instructed charging at the gold brute. The brute swung his brute shot and Leonard raised the spikers, blades hitting blade as the two collided. Leonard fired and the rounds couldn't penetrate the brute's shield. The brute charged again and this time Leonard met him half way striking out with the spiker. He used all the extra strength that his armor could give him to keep the brute at bay. He just had to buy Andrew enough time to destroy the tank. The gold brute took a step back and then took aim firing at Leonard. Leonard ran a bit to try to get out of the way as the grenades hit around him. He took cover but he felt his shield drop and some of the black body suit melt and fuse to his skin. It burned and he fell to his knees as it hit him. The gold brute appeared above him and raised its brute shot to finish Leonard with the blade. It was just then that two green shots hit the side of the wraith tank catching the gold brute's attention. It turned and roared as it spotted Andrew backing away from the tank. The brute charged and Leonard took his chance. He ran forward throwing himself against the charging brute's back. He forced the brute over enough to make it hit the wraith tank as Leonard ran past after Andrew. The tank overloaded and exploded killing the gold brute.

Andrew and Leonard took cover in a small building to make sure that the gold brute wouldn't follow them. "You alright sir?" Andrew asked spotting the burned part of the Sergeant's suit.

"Yeah, the shots were just a bit closer then I thought." Leonard admitted. "Told you that you could destroy that tank." Leonard pointed out.

"Guess you were right sir." Andrew admitted. "We should get to the church. The others will be waiting for us." He said hesitating for a moment. "Do you need any help?"

"I'm fine." Leonard stated pulling himself up. He winced as she stood and pain shot through his side. "Well maybe a little help." He admitted. Andrew put one of Leonard's arms around his shoulder and the two made their way to the church.

~At the church~

Delta team had been the first to arrive at the church. They'd lost the brutes that had been trying to follow them but to be sure they prepared themselves for a fight. The flipped over the back pews to use as cover. Joe took cover behind one pew with Tricia on the other side of the aisle. Steve had taken cover up near the front of the church behind the preacher's podium. They sat waiting for about five minutes before the front door cracked open. "Halt." Joe barked.

"Calm down idiot, it's just us." Natalie stated pushing the door open. Beta team walked in and looked around. "This is why you need a sniper." Natalie stated moving up to where Steve was. "You would be useless if something came in. Get out of my spot." She instructed.

"I think you forget who is of a higher rank." Steve said. "I'm the commanding officer here until Sarge gets back so you can't order me around."

"Just go sit in one of the pews down there for a while. If you're going to have a hiding spot this far away then you need a long distance weapon." Natalie pointed out setting herself in place and setting up her sniper rifle to keep an eye on the door. Keith moved up sitting down next to her to play the part of her guard. Steve didn't argue and just moved to lay down in one of the pews.

It was about ten minutes later when someone spoke. "I'm getting worried about Alpha team. Has anyone heard from them?" Lorie asked.

"Not a single thing. Think that we should go out and look for them?" Keith asked staring down at the knife in his hand. He had gotten bored and started to carve the words 'feet first into hell' into the wood floor.

"But then if they come back here then we'll have to go out looking for the search party." Joe pointed out. "That would be a waste of time. I'm sure that the Sarge just hit some bad luck, like he always does." He reasoned.

"He's right, we stay here." Steve decided. "The Sarge told us to meet up here so he'll meet us here when he's done."

The church fell back into silence until something hit against the front door causing it to swing in. The marines were up and at the ready to fire but stopped as they spotted Andrew helping Leonard into the church. "Which one of you has the med kit?" Andrew asked.

"I've got it." Tricia said setting it down. Joe helped Andrew move Leonard over to one of the pews and lay him down. "What happened?" She asked opening the kit and checking over the Sergeant's side."

"Brute shots got him." Andrew answered. "We got rid of the wraith tank at least." He reported as Tricia went to work on the injury.

"It was just a bit of bad luck." Leonard stated looking over to watch Tricia work. "It's not as bad as it seems. Just hurts a lot."

"Well if it hurts then it's in the way." Tricia pointed out. "We can't try to get to the base or find survivors if you're injured and can't keep up with us." She said giving him a shot of pain killers. She couldn't do much for the wound while they were still on the ground but she fixed it up enough that when the ship came back they'd be able to have a medic look at it. "Alright, you're good to go." She said helping him sit up.

"Alright, did anyone find any survivors?" Leonard asked leaning back on the pew and looking up to the main alter. He remembered why he hated churches. There were feel good sayings and preaching teachings all over the place. He hated that kind of thing.

"No, not a single person." Keith replied putting away his knife and moving to sit on the pew in front of Leonard.

"We didn't find anyone ether." Steve reported. "Those wraith tanks probably took everyone out. Though maybe some of them made it to the base. I mean they might have been able to do something to protect themselves."

"That would be the best scenario that we could have at this point, even if it's just a handful of people." Leonard admitted. "Alright, pack up your stuff, we're going back to base." He ordered grabbing his sniper rifle and shotgun. The soldiers moved off collecting their supplies and preparing to head out.

~End chapter 13~

A/N: Well hope you enjoyed chapter 13. Chapter 14 will be up next Saturday. In the mean times please read and review.


	14. Discovery

Cobalt Army chapter 14

"I honestly don't believe a damn thing that you say," Allison stated, frowning at Tucker. "I don't believe you that Leonard is a robot; he's a human, I know that for sure."

"I honestly don't want to hear about what you two do in your private time," Tucker said, rather annoyed. "I'm telling you that everything that I've said is true."

"I was more referring to when we are training, the first time that I met him. We weren't wearing armor and he was obviously human then," Allison said, turning to look at Tex. "Is anything he says true?"

"Ask Church, not me," Tex said. "I don't want to be the cause of any problems with you all or telling you something that's not true. I really don't know. I haven't seen Church in years. Seeing him today was a surprise. I didn't even know he was still around."

"I can't tell if that means that some of what he's told me is true or if you are just playing it very safe. I supposed that it is best to play it safe with Sarge. I wouldn't want to mess with him," Allison said. "If you were so close to him then why do you call him Church instead of Leonard?"

"Because I don't like his first name," Tex answered. "I always only used it when I was really mad at him. Besides, close is really a relative term. Even though we were sort of close we weren't really close."

"That doesn't really make sense," Tucker said, wincing as Tex hit him. "I can't understand why Church loves you. Proves what an idiot he is."

"Church doesn't love me, we're broken up," Tex corrected. "Also, you continue to crack jokes about me then I'm going to knock you out and leave you for the Covenant."

"I don't think you being broken up matters. Why do you think he wanted to rescue you from the reds, or he worked so hard to try to get Omega out of your head, or had the reds make a second robot so that you could use it, or why he tried to hard to keep you from being possessed again by Omega," Tucker pointed out.

"He didn't do that because he cares about me. He did it because it was better for him. It would be sort of part of the program. I was like him, you know that. Our kind take care of each other," Tex informed him.

"But then why didn't he try to protect Omega? He wanted him gone. He didn't like Gamma ether," Tucker argued. "How do you explain why he hated them but tried to help you?"

"Because Church hates himself and they are him," Tex explained. "Therefore, he would hate Omega and Gamma; not to mention the both of them caused major problems for him."

"You caused major problems for us. In fact you're the one that caused the problem of actually bringing Omega to our canyon," Tucker accused.

"Actually, that's the fault of you and Caboose. You are the ones that got me sent there and Omega just came with me," Tex corrected.

"This conversation got very weird very quickly," Allison said. "I have no idea what you two are talking about. Who the hell are Omega and Gamma?" She looked over to her other soldiers to see if they understood any of it.

Paul shrugged in reply to her question. "I have no idea, it's all Greek to me."

Tucker was about to reply but Tex slapped a hand over his mouth. "Ask Church," she repeated again. "If he thinks that you should know he'll tell you."

"They are not nice people," Caboose said. "They were very mean and one of them was in my head a few times. It was not nice."

"I think that we are going to stay out of this one," Corp said. "We don't really know much about it, we were just kind of there."

"You are all completely useless," Allison stated, noticing the warthog ahead. "At least we finally caught up with the others."

Paul waved from where he was standing guard over the Professor who was studying something on the wall. Grif and Simmons were sitting over to the side arguing about something.

"What is it with us and caves? I bet there are tons of bats just waiting for us to let our guards down to attack us again, like they did earlier," Grif said, moving a bit closer to Simmons preparing to use him as a shield against bats.

"Grif, those weren't bats. They were alien bugs," Simmons corrected. "This isn't a natural cave, really, and the doors were sealed when we came in here. How would bats have gotten in?"

"Well, maybe there are alien bats that they'll send after us next," Grif suggested. "This is a cave, there are always bats in caves, just like there are always snakes in caves."

"Stop bringing up snakes all the time, Grif. You know that I don't like them," Simmons said glancing around them as if he would be able to spot any snakes that were around. "Damn, I wish that we have more light around here."

"Now my fear doesn't seem quite so stupid," Grif said triumphantly. "Bats, snakes, caves, they are all linked. Man, I wish we had a fire or something."

The others had arrived and Paul shrugged. "They've been talking like that since we got here. Started out with something about the weight of one of them then moved on to how one of them never listens to the other and it's hurting his feelings."

"So, then, just as productive as our conversation," Allison summarized. "Did the professor find anything useful?"

"I thought that your conversation was very enlightening," Paul said. "You'll have to ask her, she hasn't said a damn thing to me since we got here."

Allison moved over to the woman who was examining the wall. "What have you found?" she asked, kneeling down beside her.

"There's something here, I just can't tell what. It's similar to Reach but none of these symbols match enough that I can figure it out," Oran answered.

Allison looked at the symbols and ran a finger over one of them. The symbol lit up at the touch. She looked at it and recognized only a few of them. "This one, this one we saw on some other planet, don't remember the name though," she said, pointing to one.

"If you recognize one of these symbols or think you understand it, then be my guest, because I have no idea," Oran admitted.

Allison studied them for a moment then finally tapped a few of the symbols. Nothing happened so she tried again this time hitting them in a different order. A larger symbol appeared around the small ones, and it rotated, and the outline of a door appeared on the wall. It slid back revealing a side passage. "I knew I could figure it out."

"So, then, do we go in, or should we wait for the Sergeant before we go farther?" Douglas asked, looking down the passage. "Very Forerunner, for sure."

"We don't have time to wait around for him. We have to find whatever it is now and we can meet up with the others later," Allison decided.

"Do you think there will be any bats or snakes down there?" Grif asked moving a bit closer to Simmons and hiding behind him. "Not that I'm afraid of bats, but Simmons is afraid of snakes."

"Snakes are reasonable to be afraid of," Simmons argued pushing the other soldier away from him. "Bats only make sense if you are Batman, and you're too fat and lazy to be Batman."

"Maybe I am Batman and I just act lazy so that you don't realize that I'm Batman," Grif suggested. "And how are snakes reasonable. Snakes aren't scary."

"Snakes are scary. They are long, have venom, fangs, and they slither. Bats don't slither," Simmons stated.

"Bats don't have to slither. They can drop from the ceiling and attack you from above. Snakes can only attack you from the ground. I'm so afraid, my knees might be in danger," Grif shot back.

"Snakes can climb; they climb trees all the time. They could easily attack you from the sky. Bats can only run into you, snakes can strangle you," Simmons pointed out.

"I don't see any trees here. We're in a cave not a forest. There are no trees for them to climb," Grif argued back.

"Both of you shut the hell up and get moving," Allison shouted, and the two soldiers flinched at the anger in her voice. The soldiers started to move down the passage. It didn't seem like that long of a hallway but it took them a while to get to the door at the end.

"What do you think is on the other side?" Brandon asked, glancing over at the control panel to the side of the door. "Think it might be Flood, or anything dangerous?"

"If it's Flood then we'd have to cut through. If it's anything else, then that panel will open that door easily with no problem. Be ready, though, for anything," Allison ordered. Paul and Brandon moved up to the sides of the hallway about a meter away from the door and aimed so that their lines of fire would cross on the other side of the door. Allison moved to the center of the hallway aiming directly into the room. Douglas moved to the side and tapped the panel. He had to try a few symbols before he found the right one to make the door slid open. The marines were at the ready, but found themselves facing an empty room.

"Be cautious," Allison warned as she moved forward into the room. She was followed by the other ODST. The room was large and round with very high walls. Once they were sure that there were no threats the soldiers relaxed a bit. "So, let's find out what's here and get the hell out of here. Don't want to be here longer then we have to."

"I would have to guess that whatever it is it will stand out," Oran said, looking around. "I would think it would be in the center of the room, but there's nothing there."

"Why would it be in the center of the room? That would be way too obvious. If you want to hide something you have to put it where people won't find it," Corp argued.

"The Forerunners weren't trying to hide. They left behind their technology for the people of the future. The fact that it was not used properly by the Covenant was not what they intended," Oran explained.

"The halos were not left to help anyone. They only destroy things," Brandon pointed out. "Whatever is here though is hopefully not like the halos. Not to mention you can't really hide the halos."

"Well, it did take a lot of searching to find the halos, and the ark, and this passage as it was hidden as well," Paul pointed out. "So, they do hide, but if you find the path to whatever it is, well, then it's out in the open."

"So, then, this should be out in the open, but it's not," Tucker pointed out. "Does that mean that the aliens got to it first?"

"I don't think so; I don't think they could open the door. Some of this stuff can only be used by humans," Oran answered. "I don't know where it is though."

"What are these things?" Douglas asked, looking at one of the walls. On it was a series of symbols that were in a line.

"I don't know, there are a few of them," Alison said, moving to another set on the wall. "These ones are in a different order," she noticed, looking back to the ones that she stood before. "Why do you think they are mixed around?"

"I don't know; I've never seen anything like it," Oran admitted. "They might be linked with whatever we are looking for, but I don't know."

Allison moved to the center of the room and looked down at the floor. She noticed the same symbols but in a circular pattern. She studied them for a moment, then realized that one of them wasn't the same. "These guys like to be picky on the details, right?" Oran nodded and Allison knelt near the symbol that didn't match up. "This one isn't on any of the walls," she pointed out. She reached down and ran a hand over it. She took a step back as the symbol slid back and a column rose out of the ground. "Am I now awesome or what?"

"'Or what' is the question," Paul joked, dodging a hit from the Steel team leader. "Oh, come on, you know I meant it with love."

"What the hell is that thing?" Tex asked, moving over to the column. In the center of it sat an odd shaped crystal cluster. Sharp points randomly poked out from the hard round center mass.

"Looks like it would be painful to hold," Sister said. "Just like it was hard to hold that condom full of…well, I don't know what it was full of."

"Yeah…wait what?" Tucker asked, confused. "I say that we make Caboose carry it. If all goes bad, then all we have to do is tell him to find Church and give it to him. He might actually kill Church with it, but the others can take it and run for it."

"Should we even be touching it? What if it is radioactive?" Grif asked, hesitating. "I mean, I don't want to mutate or something."

"There aren't any elevated radioactive levels around it so I guess that it's not dangerous to touch," Oran decided.

"Caboose isn't carrying it, he'd just break it. Grif is going to carry it for now. He's the most competent of you that can't fight. I'd have Tex carry it but she's on guard duty of Grif," Allison decided. "Now, grab it, and let's head back to the city. We'll see what kind of situation that the others have gotten themselves into."

Grif hesitated, but from the angry feeling in the air he knew that he had no choice. He grabbed the crystal slowly and was surprised at how light it was. He opened his palm and the crystal hovered half an inch above his hand. "Wow, that is cool," he said, putting the crystal away on his equipment belt. "Alright, ready to go."

"Steel team, defense of the crystal is our main priority. The rest of you just protect it and try to stay out of the way of us protecting it," Allison ordered.

"Why do you think that we are going to get in the way?" Tucker asked. "Maybe we have secret kick-ass abilities that you don't even know about."

"If you had, then why would you have not used them by now?" Allison asked. "Not to mention that the Sergeant didn't say anything about you guys being anything other than lazy."

"Well, we wouldn't have used them because we don't want you to know about them," Tucker reasoned. "Well, obviously Church hasn't been telling you things. He didn't tell you that he was a robot."

"For the last time, you idiot, the Sergeant is not a robot, he's human," Allison stated. "Also, Caboose isn't smart enough to hide anything from anyone."

"He just has an updated body. Looks, moves, and I suppose you've found out, feels, like a real human," Tucker reasoned.

"Then why does he go to a medic when he is injured? Why does he bleed?" Allison asked, trying to keep herself from knocking the teal soldier out.

"Because it's all fake; they are keeping you in the dark. It's all a conspiracy," Tucker told her. "They are lying to you."

"A conspiracy? There's no conspiracy. What the hell would they have a conspiracy about?" Allison asked, looking over at the other marines and only receiving shrugs.

"Exactly," Tucker answered as though it made complete sense.

Allison stared at him and then turned to Brandon. "I'm honestly thinking of hitting him hard enough to kill him."

"Ignore him, he's done this before. Back when he thought that red and blue were the same," Tex informed her. "He doesn't have a theory; he just says 'exactly' over and over in reply to everything."

"Well, then, we are going to ignore his stupidity. The Sergeant is not a robot and you all are basically useless for anything other than meat shields in combat," Allison stated. "That's the end of discussion and we are going to get moving."

"All right, who you want to use as your main meat shield?" Tex asked. "I figure that we would put them out front. That way, if there are any aliens out there, they'll kill them, and then the rest of us will know it's not safe."

"How about we send Tucker out front? None of us like him, and he would be a target that would easily draw their attention," Grif suggested.

"That's the first smart thing that any one of you has said all day. Tucker, you're in front," Allison ordered. "Now get your asses moving. I don't want to waste more time. The Sergeant might actually need our help."

"Would you stop calling him 'Sergeant'? That just sounds way too wrong. He's so not a Sergeant and the Church that I knew was barely a recruit, let along anything higher then a private," Tucker said.

"He is a Sergeant, so we call him the Sergeant. In fact, he's a Staff Sergeant, so you'll show some damn respect. I don't care what he was like when you were on a team with him; he's our leader. So stop giving me reasons to want to kill you, and get moving," Allison ordered.

"Fine, you don't have to get all bitchy," Tucker said, starting to move down the others followed behind him.

End Chapter 14

A/N: If you've noticed an improvement in my spelling, grammar, and all around writing, thank Martienne who became my beta reader.


	15. The base

Cobalt Army Chapter 15

"We can never get anything to go our way," Leonard muttered, staring through the scope of his sniper rifle at the gathered Covenant troops. A large number of brutes, too many for Leonard to count, had gathered outside the UNSC base. They were using a plasma laser to try to break through the heavy metal gate of the base. "We won't have much longer. They are almost through the main door."

"So then what are we going to do? There are too many for us to try to take them on," Keith said, lowering his sniper rifle to look at Leonard. "It will be even harder with you injured."

"I'm not that injured," Leonard defended, though he knew he was lying. His side still hurt with every move. "All this means is that we can't go in the front door. It's not like we haven't gotten into bases before."

"How can we be sure that the soldiers inside won't kill us?" Tricia asked. "I mean, we can't radio them; we don't even know if they still have a radio."

"They have guns that don't match their ammunition," Leonard pointed out. "They aren't the ones I think would be shooting us."

"Didn't really think about that," Tricia admitted. "I'm used to us working with soldiers that have been given real equipment, and do real military stuff."

"We don't have time to be sitting around, so let's get moving," Leonard ordered, leading his soldiers away. They moved around the side, being sure to avoid being seen by the Covenant.

"This is by far the easiest sneaking into a base we've ever done," Steve said, eying the wall that made up the border of the base. It was only three meters high, by far one of the shorter walls they'd climbed.

Leonard motioned to Steve and the two of them moved up to the base of the wall. They knelt down and cupped their hands together to give the others a boost up. One by one the marines moved forward, and with a little boost from Leonard and Steve were sent over the wall with ease. Once everyone was over Steve stood up and took a running start before being booted up over the wall. The others had all made it over and then moved into the shadows, but Steve stayed at the top of the wall kneeling down to stay hidden. Leonard moved back and took a running start before jumping as high as he could. He reached out and Steve grabbed his arms. With the extra ability of the armor Steve easily lifted Leonard up onto the wall. The two moved into the shadows with the rest of their soldiers.

"Any sign of the local soldiers?" Leonard asked, staying flat against the wall in the shadows as he scanned the area for any sign of movement.

"No, and I can't really blame them. They don't have guns and ammunition that match and the Covenant are burning through their front door. If they are smart then they are as far away from the front of the base as possible," Joe answered.

"Wait; are the soldiers we left behind smarter than or as dumb as the ones that we were working with before?" Lorie asked.

"Well, I'm about eighty percent sure that Tex only brought them with us to annoy the crap out of me. Therefore I'm going to guess that the people here are smarter," Leonard answered.

"Well then, they are probably at least in the main part of the base. That would put another door between them and the Covenant. We'll have to see if we can get in there," Natalie reasoned.

"From the speed of that burn I'd say that the Covenant will be breaking through the door in less than a minute. Doesn't give us much time," Joe said.

"Well then, no more wasting time," Leonard said, moving across the open lawn of the base to the main building. He slammed his fist against the main door three times then moved to face the main wall gate.

"You know I'm starting to think that knocking wasn't going to work," Steve said, after a few seconds of waiting and watching the moving plasma burns on the main gate.

"Alpha, can you open the door for us?" Leonard asked, glancing over at the door having only now remembered the AI.

"Took you long enough to ask," Alpha replied. "I just need a moment, and they are open." The door opened. "Aren't I awesome?"

"Yeah, you're amazing," Leonard said sarcastically. "Don't shoot, we're humans." Leonard shouted into the base. He switched to his shotgun and moved into the door way. What he saw was not what he expected.

Inside the doorway were two humans with guns at the ready, but they weren't soldiers. Their clothing made it obvious that they were civilians, though where they had gotten SMGs from he didn't know. The two civilians seemed stunned at the sight of Leonard in his armor. He took the chance, moving forward, and his soldiers followed him in. The appearance of more seemed to snap the civilians out of their daze.

"Halt! State your business!" one of them demanded. He didn't look like he could be older then twenty-five. He looked nervous, eyes darting from one marine to the next quickly and the gun visibly shook in his hand. There was dirt on his face and he looked like he'd been through hell. What had once been a dress shirt and pants were torn and dirty.

"We're here to make sure all your asses aren't blown to bits by the aliens," Leonard told them. "Where are the soldiers that were here? And where did you get those guns?"

"There are only three of them left that can fight, two more which are injured," the second civilian answered. He looked to be in his forties or fifties. There was a distant look in his eye that made Leonard think this wasn't his first time in combat. If he had to guess he would have said that the man was a retired marine. Likely he'd been one of the soldiers that had seen the horrors of the human-Covenant war and had retired. He'd probably moved to the planet looking for peace. "As for the guns? Well, turns out this isn't as peaceful of a planet as I thought."

"Alpha, lock the door," Leonard ordered. The door slid closed behind them and Leonard turned to his troops. "Search the place, see if you can assist the injured soldiers in any way, and find out what kind of weapons they have." The soldiers moved off to do as they had been ordered. "All right, tell me what happened."

"I'm Tad Varan, retired Corporal of the UNSC Marine Corps. I don't know exactly when it started, seems like forever ago. Hell, I don't even know where they came from. It was like in a second they were just swarming through the streets. I went and got my pistol, have it to shoot wild animals that try to come into my yard. I tried to get my family out, get them somewhere safe. Next thing I know my neighbor comes out with one of these," He looked down at his SMG. "He starts just shooting at them, no idea what he's doing, just firing wildly. Doesn't even keep his fire on a brute long enough to kill it, just hits some of the grunts. Spikers got him. I grabbed his weapon, grabbed my family, and ran. That's when the phantoms showed up. Started filling the streets with plasma fire, burned up cars and people. We ran for it, tried to make it to the base. One bolt got too close, nearly hit me. Next thing I know I'm standing alone on the streets. Their crews started to move through so I just ran for it."

"Why did your neighbor have a weapon like that? A bit extreme for scaring off wild animals," Leonard asked. He had already set Alpha on the task of finding a way out of the base.

"From what the soldier said, there were a lot of people with weapons like this. Found plenty of melted ones on my way here. As close as I can guess they were arming themselves, against what I don't know. Don't think they knew that the Covenant would come," Varan answered.

"Can you take me to whoever is the head officer here now?" Leonard asked. "Any time now, the Covenant are going to start burning through that door, and unless we can get out of here we'll be joining all the other people of this city as ashes."

"I don't know who's in charge. When I asked the soldiers for ranks they all said they were Privates. They said their Sergeant was out with some marines," Varan answered.

"Yeah, she's out with the rest of my soldiers. If we're lucky they'll be able to back us eventually. Just take me to whichever one seemed to be the most together," Leonard instructed.

"I guess that would probably be Private Daron. He's right this way," Varan said, before leading them down the hallway. "Do you mind if I ask you why the Covenant is here? This isn't the old war; they don't attack planets anymore without a reason. It would be a waste of the few resources they have left."

"That's not something you should worry about. For now, just focus on staying alive," Leonard instructed. The retired soldier reluctantly complied, leading them to the medical bay of the base. There they found six people gathered with Andrew and Tricia, already talking to the three unwounded soldiers.

The marines stood as Leonard entered. "What have you found out?" Leonard asked, glancing over at the two wounded soldiers. From first glance it was obvious that neither of them were going to make it, and that frustrated Leonard. He didn't like to leave any of his soldiers behind, let alone lose any of them completely.

"Sir, things aren't really very good here," Andrew answered.

"Well, that's obvious, Private. Tell me something I can't tell by simply looking around," Leonard said, letting his frustration get the better of him for a moment.

"Well sir, you're highest ranker here so you're in full charge. We have two wounded soldiers in critical condition and unable to be moved. We've only got three active duty soldiers and one retired and the remaining civilians are untrained in the use of firearms. There's very limited ammunition for the SMG that they were able to grab when they made their way here," Andrew reported. "In short sir, your bad luck is really bad today."

"Great, just great," Leonard muttered. "What's the medical status of the two injured soldiers? Exactly how serious is it?"

"Well sir, as you can see Private Morton over there is missing one of his arms and he has plasma burns over seventy percent of his right leg," Tricia answered. "Private Zatorn over there has burns over eighty percent of his chest and was hit with a few spikes. One of them pierced his liver."

"So in short, the situation looks exactly like what we thought it was," Alpha summarized. "So far none of the others have found any good escape routes."

"So then, we're going to die here?" one of the Privates spoke up. "Oh man, my brother told me I was lucky to get a job here. Said it would be safe here. Figures the Covenant would show up to kill me on the most peaceful planet."

"Quit the complaining soldier. You're a marine; start acting like it," Leonard ordered. "We are not dying here. If we can get to the forest, then we can meet up with the rest of the soldiers. From there it will be much easier."

"Wait, we go out there, get back the idiot soldiers, and then things become easier? Is there any way that we can leave them behind and only grab Steel team?" Andrew asked.

"No, we're all going to be all right. We'll start though by getting out of here. Is there any secret way out of the base? Any way that they might have built into the building or maybe one that soldiers have used to sneak out and go to the city?" Leonard asked.

"There's not that I know of," one of the soldiers said. The one that had complained earlier shook his head, fearful to speak again.

"I know of a way out. Private…Tucker showed it to me once. Said he used it to go into town and get women, though I think he was going out to get drunk," the third soldier said.

"Good, what are your names, soldiers?" Leonard asked, looking the soldiers over. Their uniforms were scorched and dirty in places. They all looked unsteady, eyes unfocused and searching nervously. This was likely the first time they'd ever fired their weapons off of the firing range let alone seen a grunt or brute.

"I'm Private Daron sir, that's Private Fango," he said, motioning to the soldier that had complained. "And that is Private Bartlett," he motioned to the third soldier.

"All right, Private Daron, show me to this way out," Leonard instructed. "Tricia, Andrew, see if you can find any explosives. I want to bring this place down behind us. Take revenge on as many of those alien freaks as we can for the civilians they killed."

Tricia and Andrew nodded and moved out of the room. Daron lead Leonard back to a small grate in the back of the base. "He said that if you climb though then you come out into the open field at the rear of the base."

"Great, we can use this," Leonard said, looking through the tunnel. He wasn't sure how they were going to get the injured soldiers through, though.

"Sir, how are you going to know that the Covenant are in the base?" a voice said, and Leonard looked back to see one of the injured Privates leaning against the wall behind him.

"Bert, what are you doing? You have to lie down and rest. You'll only make your wounds worse," Private Fango said.

"I'm not a fool; I know how bad of condition I'm in. No amount of rest is going to save me or Martin," Zatorn said, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Once you get out you won't know if they are in the base or not. Me and Martin can't go through that way," he motioned to the tunnel. "I'll know when they are in the base."

"Sir, we hit the payload. Seems the Sergeant kept a stash of explosives away from the soldiers. Probably a smart idea with a guy like that Caboose around," Joe reported.

"Joe, start placing the explosives around the base to be able to bring it down. Connect the charges to a single detonator," Leonard ordered.

"Roger, sir," Joe answered before moving into action.

"Get ready to leave," Leonard ordered the soldiers. He looked back to Private Zatorn, reluctant to admit what was going to happen.

It only took Joe ten minutes to get the charges all set up in the right places. They couldn't even get Private Martorn out of his bed. He refused to be moved, telling them that taking him would only get them killed. Leonard had to order them to leave him behind. The first of the civilians was just entering the tunnel when the Covenant busted through the main door.

"Marines, form up lines," Leonard ordered. The brutes appeared in the hallway with grunts out front. The marines opened fire and the grunts fell easily under the fire, but at that range Leonard knew the brute shields would hold. "Get the civilians out," Leonard ordered.

The civilians moved through while the marines lay down fire to keep the brutes from advancing. "All right, you go through next," Leonard ordered the local troops. Bartlett, Fango, and Daron moved into the tunnel. "All right, marines, start getting the hell out of here," he ordered.

One by one the ODST moved into the tunnel until only Leonard and Zatorn were left. "All right, now's the zero hour," he said glancing over at the injured soldier and passing the detonator over to him. "Don't blow it until there are as many in here as you can get. That should give us enough time to get away," he instructed. He gave a quick salute and the Private returned it.

Leonard moved into the tunnel and crawled out to the other side. It seemed like it took forever but it was only a few seconds. He pulled himself out of the other side and found Keith and Lorie waiting for him. They didn't say anything, knowing the choice that he'd made. They moved across the short open area into the forest for cover.

"Where's Bert?" Private Fango asked, looking back at the base as though Zatorn could come out of the tunnel at any moment.

"He's a true soldier," Leonard answered, unable to bring himself to look at the Private. "Come on, we need to get going."

"Get going? What the hell are you talking about? We have to wait for Bert. We can't leave him behind," Fango argued.

"Don't argue with your orders, soldier," Leonard said, glaring at the private from behind his visor. It hadn't been an easy choice to make, but it was the right one in the end.

The soldiers flinched as explosions rocked through the base, engulfing the building in flames. Fango tried to run toward it but the other soldiers stopped him, holding him back.

"Get moving," Leonard ordered one last time before moving off through the trees. The civilians and ODST followed without a word and after a moment the soldiers followed, Bartlett and Daron dragging Fango along with them. He'd tried to get back to the base fighting against the two other soldiers with all he had. After a few minutes he was too exhausted and beat down, leaving Daron and Bartlett to drag the sobbing man behind them.

~End chapter 15~


	16. Raly point

Cobalt Army Chapter 16

"So what do we do from here?" Tucker turned to look at Allison. "I mean, how do we get off the planet? Do we try to find our own way, do you have a ship up above waiting, or should we find the others?"

"We have to find the Sergeant and figure out what he wants to do. We don't have a ship waiting for us, so we'll figure another way off the planet," Allison moved past him over to one of the destroyed shades to be sure that they couldn't salvage the turret.

"So wait, your idea is to go find Church so that he can fail to come up with an idea as to how to get off the planet?" Tucker's shoulders fell and he raised one eyebrow. "That's a bad plan."

"The Sergeant will be able to come up with a plan." Allison stood up, finding that they'd rendered all parts of the shade useless. "Come on, we're going to get more of the vehicles. It will take too long to get back to the city at this rate."

When they reached the vehicles they found that a few of them were missing. "Guess the others took some to get to the city." Paul walked over to one of the pumas and climbed aboard.

"Hop in a puma and let's get moving. My puma will take the lead, Grif's puma stays in the middle." Allison climbed into the driver's seat of one of the vehicles. The soldiers moved into the vehicles and started off down the road.

"So what do we do if they've been taken out by the Covenant?" Corp swerved his puma out of the way of a fallen log in the road.

There was a pause before Allison answered. "If by some unimaginable chance they are dead, well then we'll figure out from there what to do. It's very unlikely though that they've been taken out."

"I really think you are over estimating him." Tucker leaned back in his seat. "I mean, you do realize that he took seven soldiers and attacked a city full of Covenant right?"

"And your point is?" Allison slowed for just a second as they hit a bump in the road. "He's attacked a city with just Cobalt Team before and they managed to kill everything."

"A city of the little grunts is not that impressive," Tucker huffed crossing his arms over his chest. "I mean, killing one of those big things isn't really proof that he's more than lucky for a moment."

"Wait, the Sergeant has good luck?" Brandon cocked his head to the side, trying to remember the last time Leonard had good luck. "I thought he only had bad luck. That's why there was a hunter there at all."

"Church doesn't have good luck. Hasn't had a bit of it since I met him." Tex hit an extra big bump, nearly knocking Tucker out of the back of the puma.

"Hey, is that a puma up ahead?" Douglas pointed over to what looked like a barely visible rear of a puma. The soldiers slowed to a halt and Douglas exited their vehicle moving over into the woods to check it out. He came back a minute later. "It's definitely their puma. They must have ditched them before they entered the city."

"Well, then it might be a bit harder to get in contact with them," Allison leaned against the steering wheel and a bit toward Douglas. "Did you check what signal their radio was tuned to?"

"They are tuned to frequency delta-sigma-alpha." Douglas leaned on the side of the vehicle.

Allison returned their radio. "Steel Team to Sapphire and Cobalt Teams, package retrieved. What's your location?"

"Steel leader, this is Cobalt leader, we read you loud and clear. We're in the forest, where are you?" Leonard's voice was clear over the radio.

"We're near the puma's you left behind," Allison answered. "Did you find anyone still alive or had the Covenant gotten to all the civilians?"

"We found three civilians alive at the base with three soldiers left," Leonard paused for a moment and there was the sound of a annoyed sigh before he spoke again. "Well be to your location in twenty. Get to cover and stay out of sight until we get there."

"Understood sir, Steel Team out." Allison turned to the rest of the soldiers. "Move your pumas into the trees. We're taking cover until the others can get here."

Three out of the four pumas easily were moved into the forest, though Corp had a bit of a problem getting his between the trees. Paul got fed up with it and kicked the red soldier out of the driver's seat, easily pulling the puma into the forest.

"All right everyone, find some cover and lay low," Allison got out of her puma and moving into the lush undergrowth. The rest of Steel team did the same moving low in the forest.

"Dude, I've found that when you're the most obvious they never notice. Like those guards at that temple that quest took us to." Tucker meandered into the forest not really trying to keep low.

"Tucker, those guards were idiots. The Covenant are not as stupid as them." Tex glared at him as she walked up behind him. "Now get low and find cover as you were ordered."

"I don't listen to you or her. I have never listened to ether of you. What makes you think that I'd start now?" Tucker glared back, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Tex hit Tucker hard in the back of the head causing him to fall to the ground. "See, now you're doing as you were ordered," Tex smirked before getting low and moving to a hiding spot.

"How long do we have until the others get here?" Simmons took a seat on a log that was partially rotted.

"Only about twenty minutes, and how is that keeping low?" Allison glared back at the maroon soldier.

"Hey, I like to keep my uniform very clean. I'm not going to lie down on the ground." Simmons tugged at the hem of his shirt to remove the wrinkles and show that it was spotless.

"You are such a pansy." Grif sat down on the log with Simmons, scooting a bit closer to him till they were touching.

"You're sitting up here too, and don't sit so close." Simmons moved away from Grif so that they weren't in contact any more.

"Dude, I'm trying to place the thing between you and me." Grif slid back up against Simmons again. "Besides, if I get down on that ground I'm falling asleep and I'll be pissed when someone wakes me up."

"You don't have to be that close. Ow, it's poking me. Grif stop poking me," Simmons winced as the object jabbed into his side. He moved away from him again.

"Oh, get over it, you pansy. I'll poke you with the thing if I want to. What's a little pain any way?" Grif glared before moving closer to Simmons again.

"This conversation is starting to sound very wrong," Tucker closed his eyes tight trying to keep the image out of his mind. "If only it were two girls, or a girl and a guy, then I could say my catch phrase but it's just not right with two dudes."

"That's not fair to people like Simmons and Grif." Tex tilted her head to one side and frowned at the teal soldier. "They deserve just as much as anyone else to be annoyed by your stupid phrase when they do stuff like this."

"Dude, just let your boyfriend sit next to you," Tucker snapped at Grif and Simmons before turning to Tex. "I am not going to make my phrase an equal rights thing. Two guys together, not hot."

"Says you," Sister smirked. "Then again, you probably think three girls, five guys, a horse, and a flock of doves is not hot."

"Yeah—wait, what?" Corp looked at the yellow soldier, eyes a bit wider in horror.

"He is not my boyfriend." Simmons slid away from Grif again. "Damn it Grif, stop moving closer. And stop poking me."

"Oh, so you guys are just sex buddies." Tucker was grinning and chuckling. "Leaving yourself open to start a relationship with Corps ass I guess."

"This conversation is getting worse by the minute. Can we stop it now?" Paul was trying to keep himself from banging his head against the tree next to him.

Simmons moved away from Grif again falling off the end of the log. "Damn it Grif, now look what you did."

"That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't kept moving away. Don't go blaming me because you're an idiot." Grif leaned over to glare down at him. His face suddenly became surprised as he spotted something. "Hey, is that a snake?"

"What a snake?" Simmons sat up, horrified to find that there was indeed a snake beside him slowly slithering toward him. "Oh my god a snake!" Simmons stood up and tackled Grif to the ground, clinging to the orange soldier. "Get rid of it!"

"It's just a garter snake," Grif stared up at the maroon soldier that had him pinned to the ground. "Damn it Simmons, let go of me, it's getting hard to breathe."

"Would you all just shut the hell up? You all are going to call the Covenant right to us," Allison gripped her weapon tighter, moving her finger a bit closer to the trigger to punctuate her threat. "I swear, I will shoot each one of you to keep you quiet."

Leonard shook his head as he heard the shout echo through the forest. "Damn it, if they get my soldiers killed, I'll kill their ghosts."

"What was that noise?" The female civilian beside Leonard looked up at him. "It sounded like someone screaming. Do you think there are more survivors?"

Leonard wanted to tell her he thought there were more survivors but he knew it wasn't true. "Most likely that was one of the soldiers that we are going to meet up with. He's one of the local soldiers for sure. We can only hope that shout didn't call the Covenant to them."

"So great, we're about to go meet up with some soldiers that scream like little girls?" The young woman nodded her head slightly and sighed. "That does not inspire confidence."

"Well, my soldiers will be there so we probably won't have to worry about it." Leonard looked the young woman over. She seemed calm and collected. "Why don't you have a weapon?"

"You see that guy up there?" She pointed to the nervous civilian that was a bit ahead of them. "That's my brother. He doesn't want me to have a weapon. He's one of those people that think because he's the big brother and a man he has to be the one to protect me. He said that he doesn't want me to be killing things."

"You seem way more steady than your brother," Leonard glanced back over his shoulder at Private Fango. Leonard stopped and the other soldiers stopped. "Private Fango, give me your weapon."

Fango looked at him, unsure. "Why?" He pulled out his weapon and looked down at it, realizing how badly his hand was shaking. Regretfully he handed it over to Leonard.

Leonard turned and handed the weapon to the woman. "What's your name? Have you ever shot a gun before?"

"The name's Jessica Barns and I've never shot a gun like this." She took the SMG and held it in her hand for a moment getting a feel for it.

"What are you doing? Why are you giving my sister a gun?" The nervous civilian looked between Jessica and Leonard.

"Richard, would you back off?" Jessica glared at her brother. "I can handle myself and I want to be of help. I can't do that if I don't have a gun."

"So you've never fired one of these but have you ever fired a gun at all before?" Leonard brought her attention back to him. He then turned to Richard taking a threatening step toward him. "You need to back off. Your sister is steadier than you are now so I trust her with having a weapon."

"I have fired a gun before, just not one of these." Jessica shifted the weapon in her hand to the proper position. "I think I'll be able to handle it though."

"When have you ever fired a gun?" Richard's eyebrows furrowed in anger.

"I used to go out hunting with dad. You really think it takes all day to get firewood?" Jessica raised her eyebrow.

"That's enough, Jessica gets a gun, Richard is going to let it go, we are all going to keep moving." Leonard pointed in the direction they were supposed to be heading. "Now get moving."

"Yes, sir!" Jessica gave Leonard a sloppy salute before shooting one last glare at her brother and started to move in the direction that the other soldiers were.

"It's times like this that make me miss my brother." Andrew started to move again looking a bit to the side as though lost in memory. He suddenly snapped out of it and frowned. "No wait, it's times like this that make me glad that I'm light years away from my brother."

"It's times like this that make me glad I'm an only child." Keith continued along their path toward the others. "So who was it that was screaming?"

"It was either Donut or Simmons. Possibly Sister, but likely she wouldn't be scared by something, just try to hit on it." Leonard shrugged, not really carrying who it had been as long as the people were alive when they found them.

"Sir, I have completed the task that you have asked of me." Alpha's voice held a light tone of joy at the news. "I think I have found exactly what you are looking for."

Data scrolled across Leonard's HUD and he nodded. "That one will do. Keep an eye on it, I don't want it getting away."

"What is Alpha keeping an eye on?" Tricia moved past Leonard. "Is he able to track the Covenant or something?"

"Nope, he's keeping track of our way off this crap hole." Leonard moved a bit faster, taking the lead as they reached the road where they had dropped off their pumas when they had gone into the city. He held his shot gun up over his head and Steel Team stood up, though it was hard to see them in the shadows of the forest.

"Welcome back to the group, sir." Allison waved toward the approaching group. "Sadly one hundred percent of the soldiers you left with me are still alive. Oh, and we got what the Covenant were looking for."

"So, then the Covenant was looking for something." Varan looked to Leonard hoping to get an actual answer this time. "So what were they looking for?"

"Like hell we know what it is." Grif pushed Simmons off him and standing up. "It's some stupid thing that doesn't really do anything."

"Great, so they killed all our families and friends for some useless item?" Fango nearly shouted angrily. "Why the hell would they do that?"

"Calm down, Private," Leonard turned to the soldier. "The Covenant often look for things that seem pointless but aren't. Now come on, we're getting off this planet." He stopped when Allison raised her hand. "What is it Corporal?"

"Sir, are you an AI?" Allison frowned as an awkward silence to fall between them. She stood there watching his reaction.

"All right, which one of you do I have to kill?" Leonard turned to the Blood Gulch soldiers, fists clenched.

~End Chapter 16~


	17. Setting the plan into action

Cobalt Army chapter 17

"Come on man, don't kill me." Tucker clung to Leonard's arm trying to keep him from strangling him. The Sergeant had Tucker by the collar and had lifted him off the ground. "I only answered their questions."

"You need to keep your nose out of other people's business, Tucker." Leonard released him. "I'm not going to kill you. If we do make it out of here, though, then I'll kill you. Until then you'll make a nice meat shield."

"Wait, so does this mean that what Tucker told us is true?" Allison brought his attention back to the marines that were all staring at him.

"You, of all people, should know that I'm human." Leonard shook his head. "You listen to the words of an idiot. Suddenly now you don't trust me."

"That's not at all what I meant." Allison bit her lip, regretting having brought it up. "I didn't mean to question you, sir. Really all logic tells us that you are human. I mean why AI would be in a human body?"

"Yeah, that would just be stupid. I mean a robot body would be a way better choice. Better strength, able to take more damage, and you could link up to other computers." Steve chuckled shaking his head. "Even if he was an AI in a human body, then why would he stay in the same body? I mean especially after what happened with that brute and the spikers."

"All right, back to work then." Leonard grabbed Simmons's collar and pulled him up to his feet. "We don't have any more time to be standing around. The Covenant might have already heard you all shouting and whatever wasn't killed in the base might be after us."

"So then what's the big plan to get away, oh mighty leader." Tucker crossed his arms over his chest. "I bet you have some great idea to get us all out of here."

"Actually, I do have a plan." Leonard smirked at Tucker as the teal soldier's face turned to one of astonishment. "But first we need a phantom."

"And how are we going to get a phantom?" Grif stood up, dusting himself off. "I mean, those things are full of Covenant."

"Yes, they are full of Covies, but they are our only option." Leonard moved over toward his own soldiers. "How much ammunition you got left?"

"Most of us are down to our last clips and they're already in our weapons." Douglas tapped the side of his SMG. "We got spike grenades though."

"Great, so we've got to capture a phantom with very little ammunition but plenty of grenades." Leonard nodded his head, looking down at his shotgun. "Well, I'm sure I can shotgun enough brutes to get us all weapons with ammunition."

"We've won with worse odds than that." Keith set his rifle against his shoulder and glanced up at the sky. "So where's this phantom that we are going to steal?"

"Is that what you said you had a perfect of earlier?" Jessica asked moving over to join the other soldiers.

"Actually I have no idea where we are going to get a phantom from. What I had picked out earlier was not a phantom." Leonard shrugged and shook his head. "I'm open to suggestions on the whole finding a phantom to steal thing."

The group fell silent and finally Varan spoke up, moving to Jessica's side. "I think I might have actually spotted where all their phantoms were heading. We might be able to steal one there."

"All right then, listen up, all of you. I will remind you for the last time that I'm in charge. Going against my orders is insubordination, and will not be tolerated. If we meet any enemies I expect you to do exactly as told and not get your asses blown up or killed. Is that clear?" Leonard's eyes scanned over the soldiers and smiled behind his visor as green lights flashed indicating that his team understood.

Simmons raised his hand after a second. "What if your orders cause us to get killed?"

"If you follow orders as I give them then you won't get killed." Leonard groaned as Corp raised his hands. "What it is, red moron?"

"Is there any way for one particular soldier to get killed on accident during our plans?" Corp made air quotes as he said the word 'accident'.

"I am not making a plan where Grif gets killed." Leonard slapped his palm to his the side of his helmet. "I'm kind of going for the whole 'no soldier dies' plan."

"Also, Grif is the one carrying the object." Allison glared at Corp in a nonverbal warning.

Grif raised his hand. "Hey, if you guys all get team names, shouldn't we get a team name? It only seems fair."

"Fine then, the soldiers that we found at the base will be called the Green Team. The team that came out with us that consists of not my soldiers will be Puce Team." Leonard looked over the soldiers quickly. "So, no more questions? Well, then lead the way Varan." He motioned to the retired soldier to take point.

Varan led them through the woods and back toward the city. "They all seemed to be coming and going from the old botanical garden."

"I remember that place. We used to take our mom there every mother's day." Richard spoke up jumping over a log that was in their way.

"I always hated that. I hate flowers." Jessica frowned and glanced out into the forest as she heard a noise. She only saw a rabbit go running between two bushes.

"That's because apparently you'd rather be out hunting with Dad." Richard huffed and looked away from her.

"No sibling fights. The closer we get to the city the more dangerous it becomes." Leonard slapped both of them in the back of the head.

"Sorry, sir." Jessica rubbed at the back of her head where she'd been hit. "It won't happen again."

"It better not happen again. You'll never be a soldier if you let things like that keep happening." Leonard watched the woman as she seemed to stiffen at the news.

"So what if she wouldn't be a soldier. My sister doesn't want to be a soldier." Richard turned on Leonard, glaring at him.

"What would you know of what I want?" Jessica took a step toward him and he backed off. She then turned away and sped up her pace to be closer to the lead.

"What are you talking about?" Richard's face fell as he watched his sister move away from him.

"I know a soldier when I see one." Leonard passed by the young man, not even looking at him. He moved up to where Varan was and suddenly stopped. "Halt."

The people all came to a stop. Leonard clenched his hands into fists and then pointed down at the ground. He then moved forward through the undergrowth. He lay flat on the ground watching as a brute with three grunts walked along a slightly worn path. The grunts wandered from side to side of the road while the brute seemed to ignore them. The grunts kept moving, but the brute stopped, looking around and sniffing the air.

Leonard cursed as he realized that the brute must have caught his scent. He remained as still as he could, hoping that he would go away. The brute didn't let it go. He roared and the grunts nearly jumped out of their skins in surprise. They stopped and turned toward the much larger alien, cowering under its angry gaze. The brute roared again and then motioned toward the forest. The grunts barked and ran into the forest to do as they'd been ordered.

Leonard backed up slowly, moving to find a hiding place where the grunts couldn't find him. He flashed an amber light to warn his team. He moved to press himself flat against a tree, for once cursing that his armor was so light. He could hear the bark of a grunt nearby. Leonard moved slowly around the tree. The five foot tall alien moved through the forest rather clumsily muttering something in its native tongue that, from the tone, sounded like insults.

Leonard moved forward slowly, preparing to get the drop on the grunt and kill it. He had almost made it all the way around the tree when he became aware of another presence. The cobalt soldier turned just in time to see the brute's fist. He ducked down, managing to just barely get out of the way. The brute roared in anger as it pulled its fist free of the tree, showering Leonard in wood fragments.

Leonard rolled out of the way as the brute brought its other fist down toward him. The grunt barked and ran off into the forest in fear. The brute turned and snorted in Leonard's direction as the soldier scrambled to his feet. He clenched his fists as he realized that he'd lost his shotgun when he'd rolled. Leonard pulled the combat knife free from his chest plate. "All right, bring it on, motherfucker." He motioned to the brute to attack.

The brute charged forward and Leonard suddenly felt very under-armed. Leonard dodged the first punch that was aimed at him. He pushed the blade forward and stabbed it deep into the alien's neck. The brute's second fist flew forward hitting Leonard in the stomach. The force of the impact sent him flying into a tree several meters away. He was sure that he heard something snap and pain shot through his abdomen.

Leonard fell to the forest floor coughing as he fought for air. The brute walked forward and Leonard rolled to try to stand up. He cringed as he tasted copper and ended up on all fours. He looked up at the brute as it stood over him and raised its fist.

"Get the hell away from my man." The brute turned to see Tex, Leonard's shotgun in hand. She fired it once and the brute's shield fell. The brute roared and Tex backed up as it took a swing at her. She cursed to herself as she moved back to her feet. She shifted her stance and raised the shotgun directly at the brute's chest, ready for him to charge.

The brute moved toward Tex and Leonard forced himself to get up to his feet. With all he could muster he leapt onto the brute's back and wrapped his arms around the alien's thick neck to find his knife. He clung tight to the hilt of the blade as the brute thrashed to try to throw him off. The blade moved in the wound and Leonard's hands slid a bit on the blade as it became coated in blood. Leonard set his knees against the brute's back and leaned back, trying to force the knife deeper into the brute's throat. After a few seconds of struggling, the alien fell to its knees, then to the ground. Leonard lay there for a moment, catching his breath, before he rolled off of the brute's back.

"You all right?" Tex walked over to him, stopping a few feet away. A cocky grin was plastered on her face. "You're lucky that I showed up."

Leonard glared at her as he got to his feet and retrieved his knife from the brute. He wiped it off on the alien's fur and then slid it back into place. He then stalked over to stand before Tex. "First of all, I would have been fine if you didn't show up. Second, that is my shotgun." He forcefully snatched the weapon out of her hands. "And third, who said I'm your man?"

Tex gave him a small smirk and tilted her hip to one side as she leaned toward him. "Oh, come on Church. You're always going to me be man, and my bitch."

"I am no one's bitch." Leonard loaded a round into his shotgun to be sure it was completely loaded. He chocked the gun and attached it to his armor.

"So, when are you going to tell them that you are an AI?" Tex crossed her arms. "You can't keep lying to them like that."

"So what if I am? They don't need to know about that. What would be the point of them knowing anyway?" Leonard looked away from her.

"Because you're lying to them. You can't lie to the people that you're leading and expect them to trust you." Tex shook her head.

"Why don't you just keep your fucking nose out of my damn business?" he spat out. Leonard turned away from her and then looked around. "What happened to the grunts?"

Allison appeared out of the shadows and walked over to them. "My team took care of them. We took action when we heard the brute start attacking you. They are all dead, as expected." There was a moment as she stared at Tex, her expression hidden by her visor.

Feeling the tension in the air, Leonard stepped up. "We need to get moving. They'll notice that patrol went missing and send people out to find it, or us."

"You're right, sir. We must push forward." Allison nodded finally pulling her attention away from Tex. "All soldiers to my location."

A minute and a half later the soldiers had all gathered again. Jessica stared at the brute and then glanced over at Leonard. "So you killed this thing? With what?"

"I killed it with a combat knife." Leonard moved to the body, stripping it of its spikers and grenades. He handed the spikers over to a couple of his soldiers and then handed the grenades to Jessica. "Use these carefully."

"There is no way you killed this thing with just a knife." Richard knelt down beside the body and poked at it with the tip of his gun.

"If he said he did it, then he did it." Jessica glared at him, pushing him forward so that he fell onto the body. Richard scrambled to get off of it and moved over to the bushes, dry heaving a bit.

"Straighten up, soldier, and get a grip on yourself," Varan snapped at him. "We don't have time for being sick. We need to get moving."

"I'm not a soldier." Richard fell back onto the ground. He sat trying to calm his nerves. "I don't see why I should hurry up so that we can all put our lives in danger?"

"Because if we don't get moving then we'll just die, now on your feet soldier." The soldiers all looked at Leonard, who moved over to Richard and grabbed him by the back of his shirt. He pulled the young man up onto his feet. "Soldier or not, you will do as ordered, and that means that you march."

"Why should I? Why the hell should I be listening to you?" Richard turned to glare at him. "If we do this then we're going to die anyway."

"If you want to live, then you'll listen to me." Leonard took a step toward him. "My plan doesn't involve anyone dying. We've wasted enough time. If you really want to be killed by aliens, then stay behind, but I won't have you get in the way of us getting out of here alive." Leonard turned and nodded to Varan. "Continue on the way."

Varan hesitated for only a moment before he turned and started to head back toward the city. The others followed. Jessica stopped for only a moment to look at Richard before she moved to follow the group. Richard stood watching them and then glanced over at the brute's corpse. He suddenly panicked and ran after them. "Hey guys, wait. I changed my mind. I want to go on the suicidal mission."

Leonard glanced over his shoulder at the figure running toward them. "That's great but this isn't a suicidal mission. I could think of one for you, though, if you wish."

"Well, I'd rather live." Richard panted as he caught up with them and slowed to their pace.

"Well, then shut your mouth and just keep moving." Leonard moved a bit faster to join Varan at the lead as they marched.

Allison moved up to Leonard's side and after a moment of walking she spoke. "So then, when were you going to tell us that you are an AI?"

"I thought we dealt with this." Leonard groaned as he shook his head.

"Well, we did, until I heard you admit to Tex that you are one." Allison looked over at him watching his body language for his reaction.

Leonard froze. "Well, shit."

~End Chapter 17~


	18. Grand Theft Phantom

Cobalt Army Chapter 18

The group had stopped and were all once again staring at Leonard. "Do we really need to revisit this subject?"

"We do until you tell us the truth." Allison crossed her arms over her chest. "We aren't moving until you tell us the truth."

Leonard took a deep breath. "We don't really have time for this. Can we discuss this once we have a phantom?"

"No, we are discussing it now." Allison jabbed her pointer finger down at the ground. "I want to know the truth, and I'm not taking another step until you tell us."

Leonard paused for a moment and then removed his helmet. "See, human, even blood." He wiped away a bit of blood that had dried at the corner of his mouth. "I am not a robot, as you can see." He looked away from the group and rubbed the back of his neck. "But I'm not exactly human."

"Well, if you aren't human, then what are you? Don't tell me you're Covenant. That would completely suck." Brandon chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

"I think I'd kill myself if I was one." He shook his head, smiling slightly. "Actually, my core consciousness, my personality, is in fact an AI, but I'm not a robot, I'm human."

"Wait, so you're human but you aren't?" Richard scratched his head. "I don't understand how you can be a human and an AI at the same time."

Leonard took a deep breath and spoke quickly. "Well, there was this project called Project Freelancer but they only had one smart AI to use for their tests. They split the AI and harvested the fragments which were named after Greek letters. These fragments were then used in experiments with the Freelancers but the leftovers of the Alpha AI were put in a box canyon called Blood Gulch. See where I'm going with this? Then some shit happened and Agent Maine got his hands on a ton of fragments and became the Meta and started hunting the other fragments. Eventually I found out that I was what was left of the Alpha and went with Wash down into the Freelancer databanks. Meta had gathered up all the other AIs in the base so when I went in to stall him the fragments tried to join with me. I ran for it through the radio and in the process was split from the Alpha you now know. I still was me, just more complete and aware of what had happened so they gave me a choice and I chose to be in a human body and be a soldier. I'm kind of attached to this human body now and the only way I think I could leave it is if the body died but I don't know if I'd actually make it out and kind of don't want to find out. Any questions?" He looked around at the soldiers.

Varan frowned and furrowed his brow. "I didn't even understand half of what you said, you talked too fast."

"Well, too bad, because I'm not repeating any of it." Leonard looked around at the others and turned his full attention to his group. "Any of you have any problems?"

"Why did you choose a human body?" Steve asked. "Robot bodies are stronger, can stand more damage, and are faster."

"I've been in a robot body before. It's overrated. They are stronger, faster, and all that, but there's something special about being human." Leonard frowned as he struggled for the words. "There's a certain motivation in pain, not to mention that being human just gives you a primal instinct that robot bodies lack. You know that instinct that we consider to be what makes someone an ODST?" The other soldiers nodded. "You can't have that in a robot body. There's not urge to care if you are hit or not. It's dulled by all the machines, wires, and circuits."

"Well, that explains that, but why didn't you just tell us about this?" Allison's shoulders slumped slightly. "Why put all this effort into trying to hide something from us?"

"I didn't want you to think differently of me. I'm not an AI like Alpha; I can't do any of that shit. I'm just like any other person, so I didn't see it as being important to tell you." Leonard stared out into the forest. "It's all in the past, so I didn't bring it up."

"But why did you deny it when we brought it up? Why did you lead us to believe that they were lying if you don't think it's important?" Steve took a step toward Leonard. "Does this mean that you've been keeping this from me for all these years, since we met in training?"

"I didn't exactly deny it. I only just avoided the subject. I had just been placed in my human body when I met you. Is that all?" Leonard looked around at them and no one spoke. He slipped his helmet back on and sealed up his suit. "Then let's get moving."

The group continued on their way and everything was silent for about five minutes.

"You know, I have one last question." Douglas looked toward Tex. "If you were in a relationship with him before Blood Gulch, how was that possible if he is an AI?"

"Well, I'm an AI, put in a human body, like him. I was sort of made from him, a fragment. The actual Church and Tex had been in a relationship, so when the Alpha was made from Church's mind then he got the memories of it. When he created me he just added those memories in and the personality of the Tex that the original Church knew." Tex frowned. "It didn't really stop there, but the rest of it is way more complicated."

"So then Sarge is the only Leonard Church?" Tricia glanced out at the forest for a second, then relaxed. "Then I don't see why what he is would matter."

"Well, actually, I'm not, I'm just the only Staff Sergeant Leonard Church. How do you think that we got this awesome armor?" Leonard put his arms out to his side and made a sweeping motion to indicate their armor. "I know the director of the Freelancer Project."

"So the original Leonard Church is the Director of this Freelancer Project? Then why would he use his own mind?" Joe cocked his head to one side. "Why not use someone else's mind?"

"Who the hell throws himself into the most dangerous situations because he wouldn't dare ask his soldiers to do so without proving he is willing to do so himself?" Leonard jabbed his thumb into his chest. "I would never ask someone else to subject a copy of their mind to my project. I believe in my idea, was dedicated to it, and was willing to make the sacrifices that the AI would have to make. There was no other proper choice."

Allison glared at Tex. "All right, well then why did you make her?"

"He made me to handle all the problems that he couldn't handle. He needs me to take care of things when they get out of hand. You know, watch his back." Tex smirked and put her hand on one of her hips. "I'm his other half."

"Well, he's got me now to watch his back, so you aren't needed." Allison stood up a bit straighter and her walk got a bit of swagger to it. "I think that makes you obsolete."

"Oh, yeah?" Tex clenched her fists. "Then who had his back when he was being attacked by that brute? Certainly not you."

The tinny voice of Alpha joined the fray. "Actually, she _is_ considered obsolete, as there is no situation that we cannot handle." Leonard smacked his hand against his helmet to shut the AI up.

"Dude, be quiet, this is going to turn into a catfight." Tucker grinned, rubbing his hands together excitedly. "Let's try to think of a way to get Sister involved."

"Get me involved in what?" Sister moved up to Tucker's side. "I want to be part of it."

"Get you involved in the catfight over Church." Tucker pointed toward Leonard. "I know, the dumbest thing ever to fight over, but for some reason they are fighting over him."

Sister looked over at Leonard. "Sure, I'll sleep with him." She looked around at the forest. "I'm sure we could find a bush about here somewhere."

"Stay the hell away from him," Allison and Tex said in unison. They both looked back to each other and glared daggers.

"Dude, how the hell are you doing that?" Tucker looked at Leonard with eyes wide. "How are you getting these girls to be at all attracted to you?"

"I'm not doing anything, Tucker." Leonard frowned at the other man. "I really wish they would stop this. We have way bigger things to worry about, like the phantom we are going to steal." He looked forward at the two women.

"You're nothing but a fragment, not even worthy of front-line action." Allison smirked. "Certainly not worthy of being on his team."

"At least I'm not just a cheap replacement." Tex scowled at the other woman. "Black armor, stealth, and named Allison. Yeah, you're just him attempting to come up with any sort of replacement for me."

"All right, that's enough out of the both of you. Allison, stop this arguing, that's an order. Tex, keep the bitchiness to a minimum. Also, Sister I would never sleep with you, I don't want whatever disease you probably got from Tucker, or more likely Caboose because I don't think even Sister would sleep with Tucker." Leonard took a deep breath, his body still tense with anger. The two women fell silent. "All right, now there are lights ahead that I think mean we are almost there. I want everyone focused so that we don't all get killed because you all won't listen."

"We're only about a mile away from the park." Varan slowed a bit. "You want to take the lead from here?"

"Yeah, fall in behind me, soldiers." Leonard crouched down and started to move through the forest toward the lights.

He stopped them as they reached a clearing. There were three phantoms all gathered in what appeared to have been a garden. The flowers and plants had all been burned away and only a few were left scattered about. There were only three brutes in the area, but over a dozen jackals were roaming around the area. There were over fifty grunts just wandering around the site, all seemingly bored with just standing around.

"Well, we've got a few guards around to get in the way. Shouldn't be too hard, though. I've got the perfect plan." Leonard moved them back until they were ten yards away from the alien ships. "All right, I need a three man team. I, of course, will be leading it. Who wants to volunteer?"

"I'll go with you." Steve raised his hand slightly.

"No go, you're going to lead Green and Puce Team to the pick-up point." Leonard looked toward the rest of his soldiers.

"I've got your back." Allison hit him lightly on the shoulder. "I'm a bit insulted that you think you have to ask."

Tex raised her hand. "Then I'm coming too."

"God, this is not the time for this," Leonard groaned. He closed his eyes and pushed aside his irritation. "Fine, you both can come with me, just don't fight among yourselves."

"Wait, what the hell is your plan?" Tucker looked at Tex and Allison. "You two do realize that you signed up for a mission you know nothing about."

"I have faith in him and his plans." Allison's face was dead serious as she spoke. "I don't need to know anything other than that it is his plan."

Leonard stared blankly at the teal soldier. "The plan is simple Tucker, and you won't be in any danger. The majority of the troops are going to head to a chosen point where they will wait for pick up. In the meantime my team will be going into that camp back there and steal a phantom. It's not that difficult."

"All right, so we get rid of an asshole and two bitches in one mission. I'm all for it." Tucker grinned.

"Just shut up and follow Steve. Try not to slow him down too much or get killed." Leonard took a deep breath and turned to the two women who were still glaring at each other. "Let's get moving." He paused for a moment and then moved over to Richard. "Give me your weapon."

"Why the hell would I do that?" Richard gripped the SMG tighter.

"Because Allison needs a weapon that is useful and you shake more than a Chihuahua." Leonard grabbed the barrel of the gun, tearing it from the man's hands. He held it out to Tex and she took it. "Now we're ready."

Steve led the main group off into the. Leonard, Tex, and Allison all moved to the edge of the destroyed garden.

"So what is our plan?" Tex asked, glancing over at Leonard.

"Well, I figured we'd just fight our way directly to the ship, get up the gravity lift, and then jet out of here with Alpha at the wheel." Leonard shrugged his shoulders. "Hell, we don't have to actually shoot at anything other than the brutes at the most." He looked around at the gathered aliens. "In fact, try to only shoot at the jackals if you can. I'll take care of the brutes up close and personal. I don't want to leave anyone alive."

"Kill everything; you take care of brutes, fists for the grunts. Got it." Allison prepared her SMG and Tex mirrored the action.

Leonard took a moment to look between the two of them, then back out to their enemy. "On three. One, two, three."

The three soldiers ran out into the aliens. The grunts turned and stared in confusion as the soldiers came racing at them. The confusion quickly turned to terror as the soldiers killed at least six grunts with quick strikes of their guns to the heads of the small aliens. The cantaloupe sized skulls caved easily under the force of their strikes.

The brutes roared and the jackals moved into action. They activated their shields and moved them into position before their frail bodies. Allison darted forward, smacking her gun into the shield of one of the jackals. It caused it to fall back a bit and move its shield to the side. Allison then struck out with her fist. She hit the jackal in the side of the face. It easily caved under the force. The sight frightened the remaining jackals and they all turned, fleeing from the steel armored ODST.

"Keep the jackals busy, I'm going after the brutes." Leonard broke away from the other two soldiers and toward the closest brute. He moved out of the way as the brute opened fire. Leonard winced as pain shot through his side where he had been burned. He charged forward with a burst of energy and jammed his Shotgun against the alien's neck. He pulled the trigger and because of the close quarters, the shot ripped through his neck. Blood splattered from the force. Leonard fell to one knee and let out a cry of pain as a spike pierced his leg.

A brute stood over Leonard, spiker aimed at his head. The beast flinched as his energy shield shimmered. Tex ran toward them, SMG firing. The brute roared and charged toward Tex. Tex didn't back down as the brute struck out. The brute's fist struck her in the chest and she was forced back several meters. She fell to the ground, hitting and killing a grunt and crushing it under the force of the impact. Tex cursed as she lay on the ground, struggling to breathe.

Leonard gritted his teeth and ran toward the brute. He drew out his knife and slid to stand between Tex and the Brute. "Back the fuck off, you bastard ape." The brute chuckled and raised his spiker.

Leonard darted forward toward the brute, but his leg gave out under him. The brute slammed an open palm against Leonard's chest and knocked him down to the ground. He moved forward and stomped his foot down on Leonard's chest. Leonard reached up and clawed at the hairy foot, struggling to breathe.

The brute paused for a moment as the shotgun touched the side of its helmet. It didn't even have time to turn its head before there was a boom and bits of blood, skull, brain, and metal shot forth from the alien's head. The nearly headless body fell to the side and off of Leonard.

Allison was standing over him, shotgun in hand. "I got your back." She reached out a hand and he took it.

Leonard struggled to his feet and swiped the shotgun out of Allison's hand. "Damn, what is with you bitches and touching my shotgun?" He then walked over to Tex who was struggling to her feet.

"The grunts ran like hell, killed all the jackals, one more brute left to kill." Allison followed him and looked at Tex. "You forgot that you don't have armor like ours."

"Sort of." Tex scowled and looked away from her. "Chest hurts like hell."

"Well, once we've killed the last brute, then we'll have a look at you in the phantom." Allison set a hand on her shoulder.

"I got the last brute." Leonard grabbed his knife and took off toward his target who was trying to get the grunts to come back.

The two watched as Leonard charged the remaining brute. The alien seemed a bit surprised by the cobalt soldier running at him with only a knife. Then the brute brought its arm back and swung forward to try to slap Leonard away. Leonard jumped off the ground just a little bit so that the brute's forearm would hit him instead of the monstrous hand. He stabbed forward with his knife and sunk the blade deep into the beast's arm. He held on tight to keep himself from being knocked away from his enemy.

The brute roared in anger and Leonard set his feet on the ground, pulling the knife free. He rolled out of the way as the brute tried to hit him. He jumped to his feet, cursing as pain shot through his leg and side. He used the pain to spur him on and forced himself forward, striking out with his knife at the open spot on the side of the brute. He cut through the thick skin and muscles.

The brute fell to one knee and Leonard climbed up onto the brute's back. "This is for hitting my girlfriend!" Leonard stabbed his knife into the brute's skull, breaking through the helmet. The brute swayed and fell to the ground. Leonard forcefully pulled out his knife and sat down.

Allison and Tex walked over to Leonard and down at the brute.

"I'll admit, that was badass." Tex moved over to put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Leonard stuck out his leg and pointed to the spike in it. "Pull it out."

"That might do more damage than just leaving it in." Tex frowned at him, looking down at the spike stuck in his thigh.

Allison moved forward and grabbed the spike with one hand and set her hand on his leg. She gave one great pull and tugged the spike out of his leg. She tossed it to the side and turned to look at the phantoms. "Which one we taking?"

"Whichever one is closet." Leonard struggled to his feet and looked at the phantoms. He pointed to the one that was closest to him. "That one."

The three moved to the phantom, easily being pulled up into the ship by the gravity lift. Once inside Leonard moved to the pilot's seat. He frowned as he realized he didn't fit in the seat. "So can you fly it?"

There was a pause and Alpha's image showed up on the screens of the ship. "I have a proper understanding of the controls. I can pilot it."

The phantom rose up slowly and turned. Leonard moved into the back of the ship to where Allison was checking Tex over. "What's the diagnosis?"

Allison looked up at him. "Some internal bruising, and one cracked rib but other than that she's fine." She stood up and pulled Leonard over to the side. "You want me to check over your injuries?"

"Nope, I'll have Tricia do it when she can see to my wounds." Leonard put his weight on his uninjured leg.

Allison looked away from him. "Sir, I wanted to ask you something?"

"I thought we already covered this whole AI thing." Leonard sighed, shoulders slumping.

"It's not about that, I don't care about that. I was wondering? Did I hear you say what I think I heard you say when you stabbed that brute?"

Leonard stared at her and took a deep breath. "Shit."

~End chapter 18~


	19. On to the real target

Cobalt Army Chapter 19

"It was a comment said in the heat of battle. It didn't mean anything." Leonard cursed that he'd said anything at all. Maybe he should have said a movie quote or something instead.

Allison set her hands on her hips. "Then why the hell did you say it? Besides, that was just stupid. It wasn't the one that hit her."

"I don't know why I said it. There's nothing between me and Allison, I mean Tex." He slammed his hand against his head. "You know that things are long done between us, if there ever really was anything. You have nothing to worry about, Allie." Leonard removed his helmet and stretched his neck.

Allison removed her own helmet and smiled at him. "I know that." She pulled him closer to her. Although the armor made it difficult she brought their lips together, a bit of possessiveness to the kiss.

"You know that I can see you." Tex scowled at the pair.

Allison took a step away from Leonard and looked back at Tex with a triumphant smirk on her face. "I'm aware of that."

Leonard shot daggers at the two women. "Have I told you that I hate you both?"

Leonard didn't wait for a reply. He turned and walked to the pilot's seat. He sat down in the chair, though he didn't really fit in the seat.

"We sure do know how to pick them." The image of Alpha smiled on the screen. "We always did attract women like that."

"Would you stop saying 'we'? You didn't attract Allison, I did, somehow. As for Tex, we created her, not attracted her." Leonard set his helmet in his lap. "How long till we meet up with the others?"

"We should arrive in about three minutes." Alpha frowned. "Our main target moved, but not too far. It's not leaving the planet, just moving closer to us."

"Why would it move closer?" Leonard winced and put up a hand to stop the AI from answering. "I just got the picture. We don't have too much longer to enact the second part of the plan."

Alpha frowned and tilted his head to the side. "They know that it isn't inside of the planet any more. They are going to be looking for us."

Leonard absently tapped a finger against the top of his helmet as he thought. "Well, that will make things harder. When we get there we'll have to work fast. We'll have to keep them from alerting the others. They may not destroy it, but they will try to invade it."

"Things never become easier for you as you progress in missions." Alpha paused for a moment. "Beginning landing sequence."

The phantom slowed and landed in an open field. Leonard leaned over in the chair. "Allison, go out there and tell them to get their asses on. We don't have a lot of time."

Allison nodded and slipped her helmet back on. She moved to the back and descended down to the ground, returning a few minutes later with the rest of Steel Team right behind her.

"Dude, what the hell." Tucker picked himself off the ground. "That thing is more powerful than I thought it was." He moved away from the area just in time.

Simmons stumbled a bit as he landed in the ship. A second later, Grif was flung up into the ship and into the maroon soldier. They fell to the floor and were joined by Donut a moment later.

"Get off of me!" Simmons struggled under the weight of the two men.

"Yeah, get off, Donut. You know Simmons and Grif don't like inviting other people to their playtime." Tucker chuckled at the angered look on Simmons's face.

"Playtime, I heard someone say playtime." Caboose looked around at the ship. "Oh, this is weird. Are we going to get pregnant from this?"

Corp landed beside him. "You don't get pregnant from riding in a ship, Caboose." The Red leader frowned down at the Red soldiers. "You can't even do a dog pile properly."

"They aren't making a dog pile, they are making an orgy pile." Sister stumbled a bit but managed to stay on her feet. "Wow, really purple in here, isn't it?"

"The Covenant has a thing for purple." Allison dragged the Red soldiers out of the way in time for Sapphire Team to arrive. She motioned toward the front of the ship. "Tricia, go check on the Sergeant. Then you can check on the other Sergeant." Allison motioned to Tex. "They both got banged up a bit by a brute."

Tricia nodded and moved to the head of the ship to check up on Leonard. Green team was the next to come up. Most of them made it up fine but Richard ended up on his ass. He got up and rubbed at his lower back. "Well, that was exciting; now what?"

Tricia returned to the back of the ship. "The scan showed some bruised ribs but nothing really serious. This armor makes it way easier to check out that kind of thing. As for the hole in his leg, you really should have left the spike in until I could have taken it out. He lost a lot of blood out of that hole."

"Ha, I fucking told you so." Tex smirked at Allison as Leonard walked back into the back of the ship. "Told you not to remove it."

Leonard frowned at her. "And who was the idiot that charged a brute without any armor or shields and got their ass kicked?"

"Who got his ass kicked by a brute even though he had armor and a shield?" Tex shot back.

"Who was the reason why I didn't just get to kill the brute right away and ended up getting hurt by that brute?" Leonard crossed his arms, flinching slightly at the pain of the movement.

"And who shotgunned the brute in the face?" Allison interjected.

"Who then knifed a brute in the face?" Leonard glared at Allison.

"Who's telling you all to shut the hell up?" Tricia cut in. "I would like quiet while I work." She moved over to Tex and began to work on her to fix her up.

"Fine, we'll get back to important stuff. The next step of this plan is going to be really hard." Leonard watched as Cobalt Team landed in the ship and Keith gave a thumbs-up. The phantom started to rise up and speed away. "Next step is to walk into enemy territory, be surrounded by hundreds of aliens that will all want to kill us, kill all of them, and get that item back to the UNSC."

"Wait, we're going into enemy territory? All right, I thought this plan was stupid when we started, but this is ridiculous." Tucker shook his head. "I am so not doing that."

"Then stay in the damn phantom where they can just blow you up with fuel rod guns." Leonard looked away from the teal soldier, not caring what choice he made. "Alpha has chosen which cruiser we are going to steal. It's called the Reborn Salvation. Our target is a CCS-class battlecruiser. Now we all know the layout of their battlecruisers." The marines nodded and the others stared at him with blank faces.

"Why the hell would we know the layout of an alien battlecruiser? Why the hell do you know it?" Grif shook his head.

"Well, we've been inside of one before." Leonard paused for a moment. "Basically, it's a ship full of troops and the bridge is in the center. It also means that there will be a high concentration of high-ranked brutes in that bridge."

"So what does that mean for us?" Simmons crossed his arms. "I mean, there is no way that I'm going to go onto a ship that's full of enemies."

"Well, you won't be going out to fight. You'll be staying in the ship where it's safe. That will be the job of Puce and Green Team. You'll stay in the phantom and protect Grif. If I give you orders to move to another part of the ship, you will do so." Leonard looked over the soldiers, face dead serious. "Steel, Cobalt, and Sapphire Team will all be going to take the bridge."

"How are we even going to get on the cruiser? Won't they know that we aren't alien?" Corp asked.

"The best thing about having a loyalist-owned phantom, it has all the proper codes that are needed in order to get us in there without them blasting us to bits with plasma." Leonard smirked a bit. "It's also why having a smart AI who can figure out which codes to use and make it seem like they are being input by a living creature."

A hologram of Alpha appeared beside Leonard. He stood at his full size, only a few inches lower than Leonard as he was not wearing any armor. They were almost identical, except that Alpha lacked the few scars that decorated Leonard. "We don't have any more time to stand around explaining to idiots about our plan. The cruiser is almost in place."

"In place to do what?" Jessica frowned at the AI.

Alpha and Leonard shared a knowing glance. "Alpha, get us moving. We don't have time for this." The AI nodded and the ship sped up.

"What are they going to do?" Jessica stared at him, unwavering.

Leonard slipped his helmet on and secured it. "Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to." He moved up to the front of the ship.

"So what exactly does this cruiser look like?" Varan asked, moving up beside him.

"Alpha, give us the front view." The front viewscreen flicked to life and Leonard scowled at the image. He couldn't help it; it was the enemy after all. The screen showed the large sleek Covenant ship slowly moving toward the city. It loomed ahead of them, big and dangerous.

The first of the signals came in and Alpha replied with the proper codes. He used the momentary connection between the phantom's computer and the cruiser to slip into the alien network. It wasn't very guarded as he'd often found. For all of their superior weapons, their lack of programming skill always amazed Alpha. He didn't find any AI in the system, but it had been passed among the AI that Covenant AI tended to run and strike when you let your guard down. He looked over the data and processed the radio chatter that filtered through the system.

Their fears were confirmed as he looked over the orders. They ships were all moving into position to strike. As soon as Reborn Salvation was in place the Covenant would start to glass the planet.

Alpha processed the passenger list several times before he could be sure the records weren't false. This information would cause a problem with the plan. Alpha moved back to the phantom, opening a private channel with Leonard. "We have a problem."

Leonard made sure his external speakers were off before he replied. "What is it?"

"I found some interesting passengers on board our target. I apologize for not realizing that this would be the case before." Alpha's voice was uneasy. There was the slightest change in pitch as he spoke.

"Alpha, just tell me what it is. I'm sure that we can work around it." Leonard stared at the picture of the battlecruiser in front of him.

"There's a prophet aboard. That means that there will be honor guards. I should have realized there would be. The ship containing a prophet is always the one that starts the glassing of a planet." Alpha was quiet for a moment. "What do you want to do?"

"I want you to try to jam their local communications. If you can, try to delay the glassing. Once we get inside, hopefully they'll be too busy with us to start the glassing." Leonard took a deep breath. "Just do what you can."

"I'll see what I can do." Alpha closed the channel and turned his full attention back to the battlecruiser. He examined the communications system and jammed their local in-ship communications. He then turned his attention to the energy projector and plasma turrets. They were complicated systems, more complicated than anything he had ever seen. He would have to get creative if he wanted to delay them.

Alpha segregated off more of his processing power and sent it toward Sigma. The structure and re-bonding of the fragment AIs hadn't ended up the way the UNSC believed it had. Rather than truly joining together, the fragments had networked together into one system that made up Alpha. To a human he looked like a normal smart AI, but if a smart AI ever got to close to him they would easily be able to see all the bits and pieces. He ran his programs through several fragments in order to make them run. Most often they ended with Delta to be sure that his actions were correct, programs didn't have flaws, and he wasn't doing something too stupid. The part of Leonard that had been an AI was the center of the consciousness and made the choices as to which fragments that each programming was run through. Sigma produced several modified programs and ideas as to how to break into the system. Alpha then sent them to Delta, who checked and filtered out the ones that would either alert the Covenant to his presence or just wouldn't work. He came out with only three possible options as to how to stop it. The entire process only took a matter of a fraction of a second. Alpha gathered together the fragments, connecting them together to one forum and asked which one they wanted. The fragments voted on which they felt was the most ideal and the highest votes would be implemented.

One plan came out of the vote and Alpha went to work. Alpha gathered Delta, Gamma, Sigma, Omega, and Zeta. He collected them together and they forced their way in. Gamma easily was able to copy and lie to the computer that they were part of the system. Sigma organized the other fragments and with Omega's force broke into the weapon systems. Delta ran calculations while Zeta replaced the calculations in the system with the incorrect calculations Delta fed it. They were in the system for only ten cycles before the fragments withdrew from the weapons. Alpha tapped into the weapons control and took a quick view, satisfied that the system was running on the improper numbers.

Alpha slowed and turned the phantom 180, as was Covenant protocol , and landed in the bay of the battlecruiser. Alpha panicked as the ship was pinged with an unfamiliar request. He searched through the system but couldn't find the proper reply.

"They're asking for a code we don't have." Alpha's voice was ice cold in the phantom.

"What do we do?" Steve looked to Leonard, who was watching the front viewscreen.

Leonard watched as the grunts talked to each other and did a bit of quick planning. They wouldn't have enough time. One of the grunts ran off, shouting something to the aliens in the bay. "We get ready for all the heavy fire they are going to throw at us."

The roars of brutes reverberated through the bay while grunts scrambled to grab needlers, plasma pistols, fuel rod guns, and to man turrets. "Get ready to drop into hell."

"We're boned aren't we?" Tucker's shoulders drooped as he slapped his hand to his forehead.

~End chapter 19~


	20. Yoink

Cobalt Army chapter 20

Leonard watched the front viewscreen as the Covenant massed in the hanger. He took a deep breath and felt pain shoot through his chest. The biofoam that Tricia had filled his chest with to stop any internal bleeding was holding, but it couldn't stop the pain. Leonard moved to the side of the phantom and then glanced back up at the controls where Varan was sitting at the ready.

Leonard crouched at the side of the phantom, ready to spring out when the sides were lowered. He glanced over his shoulder where the other half of his team was gathered. Steve gave him thumbs up and Leonard returned the gesture. He then nodded to Varan and the soldier tapped a symbol on the controls, and the sides of the phantoms opened up.

Tricia and Joe leapt out of the phantom and ran to cover. Their SMGs fired, cutting down nearby grunts. Leonard remained in the phantom for a moment, knowing that his enemies would be distracted by the others. He took aim and let off four quick shots. He heard the cracks of a total of twelve rounds as all of Cobalt team took out their targets. The heavy grunts fell, dropping their fuel rod guns. Six brutes fell, rounds piercing through their skulls.

Leonard then jumped from the phantom, quickly followed by Allison. He hit the ground and rolled as his legs gave out under him. He moved to the cover of a few weapon pods that were stacked up in the middle of the hanger. Allison moved up beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He brushed it off and looked over to see that both Keith and Natalie had made it out of the phantom with ease. Paul and Brandon were covering them and Douglas moved to cover Leonard's other side.

Leonard switched to his shotgun and took off at a run toward the side of the hanger where there were plenty of gathered grunts. He turned suddenly and angled his direction toward the remaining brutes. Natalie did the same thing on the other side of the hanger. While the grunts were trying to track Natalie and Leonard, Sapphire Team moved forward and lobbed grenades, which fell among the clustered grunts. The explosions took them out, sending bodies flying and causing methane tanks to explode propelling several of the dead grunts into the air comically.

Steel team charged toward the main group of brutes perfectly in time to be able to meet up with the members of Cobalt team. Keith had stayed back, and as the brutes took aim at his teammates, took four shots, killing three major brutes and knocking the helmet off of the chieftain. Steel team opened fire and the jackals moved to try to make a wall of shields. Leonard and Natalie moved to try to get behind the jackal shields. The rounds of Natalie's battle riffle cut through the heads and throats of the jackals that were unaware of her presence.

Steel team charged forward easily leaping over the jackals, ignoring them. Their focus was instead on the brutes who roared as they raised their plasma rifles and spikers. The soldiers continued to fire, cutting down the shields of the ape like shields. The rounds finally broke through and three more brutes fell a second later as shots cut through them.

Leonard had managed to shotgun three jackals before he noticed a figure jumping at him. The chieftain swung the hammer down at him and Leonard did the only thing he could think of. He raised up his shotgun to shield himself. The hammer hit his weapon and the metal bent. The shotgun was sent flying from his hand and skidded across the hanger. Leonard fell to the ground but managed to roll to his feet. He drew out his combat knife and stood at the ready. "Didn't need it anyway," he taunted. He gritted his teeth as he gripped his knife tighter.

The chieftain charged forward, swinging his hammer. Leonard charged forward as well and stepped to the right, just barely out of the way of the alien's blow. He struck out, cutting through the side of the brute's side. The alien cried out in anger as it was wounded. Leonard pulled the knife free and took a step back from the brute. The chieftain tried to hit Leonard with a backhanded hit, but Leonard dropped down under the strike. Leonard moved forward, stabbing his knife into the beast's belly. Blood poured out of the wound, coating his hands. The alien moved back, trying to keep Leonard from gutting him. Leonard ran forward and dropped down, sliding between the chieftain's legs. He moved to his feet, and before the brute could turn around to face him, he jumped up on the alien's back. He raised his knife up and with all his might struck down, sticking the knife into the brute's head. The body went limp under him and fell to the floor.

The last of the brutes fell to the combined fire of the ODST. Allison and Steve moved over to Leonard. "Hanger secure, sir. All targets taken out."

"All right, seal all of the entrances to the hanger for now. Take any weapons you need in order to ensure you have some form of defense." The two soldiers moved off to do as they were ordered. Leonard turned and moved to one of the terminals in the hanger. "All right Alpha, get me a map."

Alpha's holographic form appeared, and he reached out, placing a hand on the terminal. "I have almost complete access to the ships systems through here." Leonard was pleased as a map showed up on his HUD. He easily plotted a course through the ship toward the bridge. A nav marker appeared, flashing red. "This appears to be the location of the prophet. I would suggest avoiding that location."

"We can't avoid it forever. I would like to take the prophet alive. It might help the war effort. Though first we have to get control of the ship, then we can worry about the prophet. Can you give me any video of the actual bridge, or the passages to the bridge?"

"Nope, there aren't any. You'll just have to go in blind, though from the most recent orders, the list of crew, and the ones you just killed and the tags they, have I would have to say you are about to run into one large fight." Alpha frowned and looked over at Leonard. The action was more of one for comfort rather than a need as the hologram's eyes were not how Alpha looked at things. Though he could feel the eyes on him he knew that Alpha was watching him through the various sensors and cameras in the ship. "I have been able to continue and extend the delay in the start of the glassing and mess with their navigation. The idiots have no idea I'm even here."

"Excellent, extend it for as long as you can." Leonard moved through the hanger and looked down at the bent-up shotgun. He picked it up and tossed it away. It was useless now. He moved back over to the dead chieftain and grabbed the grav hammer. He opened a COM and switched to the phantom's channel. "Green leader, this is Cobalt leader."

"I read you Cobalt leader, this is Green leader. Waiting for orders," Varan's voice crackled over the radio.

"Green leader. You are to stay in this position until further notice. Radio in if you have any problems. Steel, Sapphire, and Cobalt are going to make an assault on the control room." Leonard switched to his sniper rifle.

"Understood, Cobalt leader. Green team on standby," Varan answered.

Leonard switched to his regular team channel. "All right marines, we're going to move on. We're going to meet a lot of resistance on the bridge and we have no information as to what might be in our way. Be prepared for anything." Leonard put away his sniper rifle and grabbed a pair of plasma rifles. He then moved to the door that started the path he had laid out on his map.

The rest of his soldiers fell in behind him, weapons at the ready. Alpha opened the door and the metal slid back, revealing an open and empty hallway. Leonard moved in the lead, sweeping the hallway before them.

They ran down the brightly lit purple halls, following Leonard. They met three groups of grunts which easily were killed by the combined fire of the soldiers. They came to the door to the main bridge. Leonard moved to the side and took a deep breath. He dropped his plasma rifles and grabbed his gravity hammer. "On my mark. One, two, three, mark." The door opened and the soldiers charged in. There were twenty Captain Ultra brutes, five chieftains, and two war chieftains.

Sniper rifle rounds sped through the air, taking out three of the brute captains. The war chieftains roared and the others all pulled out weapons to open fire on the enemy. The marines spread out, trying to keep from being clustered up and hit by the brute shots. The soldiers opened fire, taking out the brute captains first. They concentrated on one at a time in groups, cutting down their shields and then filling them full of however many bullets they had to before they fell.

One of the chieftains charged toward Leonard and he ran straight at it. They both swung and the brute was sent flying. Leonard's shields were drained and he backpedaled as the other chieftains charged at him. His shields slowly recharged, and he moved forward, swinging again, this time taking out two of the enemies. A third brute swung and the shock wave sent Leonard flying through the air, straight at a captain. He hit the brute captain in the back and knocked it off of its feet. The hammer flew from Leonard's hands and he quickly pulled out his sniper rifle. He moved straight backward, taking aim and quickly firing off four shots, killing the remaining chieftains.

Steve slid across the floor, coming to a halt next to Leonard. The Sapphire Team leader was clutching his side where a brute had cut him with the blade on the bottom of his brute shot. Leonard put away his sniper rifle and grabbed one of the needlers that Steve had grabbed in the hanger. He helped Steve try to stand up, then quickly pushed him to the right as Leonard dove to the right. A large plasma bolt from the war chieftain's fuel rod gun exploded where they had been standing. Leonard felt heat wash over his body as a second shot hit on his right. His shields hadn't recharged and he felt skin blister in the heat. The war chieftains shot off another pair of blasts and Leonard and Steve scrambled to their feat, making a run for it in opposite directions. Six shots echoed and the war chieftains fell from the main bridge platform.

Leonard pushed back the pain in his leg, back, and side. He took off at a full run, firing his spiker at the closest captain brute. It took a total of five more minutes before the last of the brutes were dead. Leonard moved up the bridge and sat down in the captain's chair, needing a moment of rest. "Alpha, report."

Alpha brought up the health information of the three teams and Leonard frowned. The brutes had done more damage then he'd thought. Only three of his soldiers had gotten away without injuries. Keith and Natalie had sustained slight injuries from what he guessed was shrapnel from a spike grenade. Steve had been burned slightly on his left leg and part of his left arm from the fuel rod shot not to mention the large gash on his side. Douglas, Lorie, and Andrew had all ended up with spikes in various places. Joe and Brandon had both slight burns on the lower parts of their legs from brute shots.

None of the injuries were major enough for him to put his soldiers on a guard duty, but some of them would have to be careful of overexerting themselves from this point on. "And you." Alpha's voice was an annoying reminder to Leonard. He could still feel the pain from the hole in his leg, the few broken ribs he had, the burn on his side, and the new burns on his back.

"I know Alpha, I don't need you pestering me." Leonard turned his COM to the channel of the phantom. "Green leader, respond."

"Green leader here, Cobalt leader. Hanger's still clear." Varan sounded rather bored but at least attempting to be serious.

"Green leader, have Green Team and Puce Team head to the main bridge now." Leonard leaned forward in the chair, not daring to lean back. His back hurt enough as it was.

"Understood Cobalt leader. Green and Puce Teams heading out. Green leader out." The line went dead and Leonard closed the channel.

Leonard took off his helmet and ran a hand through his hair. He scowled as he realized that the blood on his hands had still been wet and he'd just coating a part of his head in brute blood. He had to decide what their next step would be. He wasn't sure if he should risk trying to capture the prophet or just wait and see if the prophet tried to make a move. The screens in front of him turned to a shade of light blue and Alpha appeared, looking around at them.

"I have control of all systems from here. I've shut down the weapon systems. What else would you like me to do?" Even without the AI's hologram looking at him Leonard could feel Alpha's eyes on him.

"You know what to do. Once the others get here I want you to get us out of orbit, and heading out of system. We'll make a jump out of system to a random location. I don't know if there are any other Covies in the area but I don't want to risk it. I want to get us and that thing back to UNSC territory."

"Understood sir, I will ready slipspace calculations." The doors slid open and at once eleven guns were pointed at Green and Puce team.

There was a feminine screen and a groan that sounded like Corp. "Damn man, can you scream like a man?" Grif glared at the maroon soldier.

"Oh, shut up Grif, at least my sister's not a slut." Simmons faced away from the orange soldier and pouted.

"Great, because I really need more annoyance," Leonard muttered, rubbing his forehead, once more regretting it as he left a trace of blood. "Alpha, get us the hell out of here."

"Moving out of orbit and out of system." Alpha announced. The Covenant ship turned and moved away from the planet.

~End Chapter 20~


	21. Kukri Base

Cobalt Army Chapter 21

Leonard stared at the series of security feeds on the screen before him. With access to the bridge came a better connection to the ship's systems. Alpha had easily gained control and nearly cornered the onboard security AI.

Leonard felt a slight tug on his back and he glanced over his shoulder at the engineer that was fixing up his shield generator. It had been almost completely overloaded in the last fight, but the scientist-like alien had been more than eager to volunteer to fix it. This wasn't the first time that Leonard had met the floating aliens. He actually liked them, and had even named the one working with him. He was calling it Todd, though it didn't seem to care what he called it as long as it got to fix things. Todd had already fixed Leonard's radio, the screen that Leonard was currently watching, and managed to fix a fuel rod enough for Leonard to be able to use.

Leonard turned his full attention back to the screens, and his current problem. Much of his team was currently doing sweeps through the ship for any enemies missed, or they were in the med-bay being fixed up. What he was watching were the feeds to the halls and rooms of the prophet. The honor guards had set up a defense around the prophet's personal quarters. Leonard was sure that the prophet was giving orders. He'd never seen brutes be so passive or not race toward a fight.

"Can you just vent the atmosphere in those halls?" Leonard felt a push toward him and then a high-pitched series of sounds from the engineer. "Thank you, Todd. How about you see what you can do with the navigation controls?" Todd floated over to the navigations controls, eager to fix more things.

Alpha appeared on one of the side screens. "That might be a bit of a risk. It could spread and end up killing the prophet."

"I still don't see why we need to catch this damn prophet rather than just kill it." Leonard leaned back in the large chair, feeling small even in his armor.

"You saw what happened on New Jerusalem. That has to stop. Catching a prophet might be able to force peace talks." Alpha paused for a moment. He opened his mouth as if to continue but shut it, thinking better of it.

"Why don't you just have Omega infect him or something, like they tried to do with Junior?" Leonard shifted and winced as pain shot through his chest.

Alpha crossed his arms. "A prophet does not wear armor or anything that I could use to control him. He is not as simple-minded as Junior was."

"I think that's a bit mean to say about Junior, he is a damn good search-and-destroy soldier." Leonard smiled a bit. He'd fought alongside Tucker's child. They'd been sent to destroy a large Covenant camp and, along with the team of elites, it had been easy. They just planted explosives all over and blew the Loyalists to hell.

"He is a good soldier, but a good soldier doesn't need to be smart." Alpha shook his head. "We are on our way to a human system; we can find back up and have _them_ handle the prophet. We currently do not have the resources that are necessary for such an operation."

"By the gods, Alpha, stop talking like that." Leonard sat up and cursed as he grabbed his side. Alpha opened his mouth and Leonard held up his hand. "Save it, I don't need a babysitter." He rubbed his temple. "We can wait until we get to human space, and then get new supplies, and then try to take care of the prophet. How long until we get there, anyway?"

"We have another hour until we will reach the base." Alpha looked away from Leonard.

"What aren't you telling me? What base are we heading to?" Leonard stared at the AI, waiting for a reply.

Alpha's image took a deep breath and looked back to the Sergeant. "We're heading to KUKRI Base." Leonard sat up in the chair and Alpha put up his hands. "Now calm down, I know what you are thinking."

"Yeah, I'm sure you do. I just went through all that trouble to get them off my back about that stuff and now you are taking us _there_. Because, you know, that's a great fucking idea." Leonard smacked his palm to his face. "You're killing me here, Alpha."

"It's the closest system and he can help. There will be soldiers and equipment there that you will actually have access to. Listen, I know you are not exactly happy with this or being associated with all of this but you have to remember that we are injured, low on ammunition, and greatly outnumbered. Not to mention this course matches with the Cole Protocol."

Leonard ran a hand through his hair, trying to comb out a bit of the matted mess. "Well, I guess that if we are already on our way there's not much I can do about it. Can you lock the honor guards in that back hall? I don't want to have to worry about them changing tactics while we are traveling."

Alpha paused for a moment. "Done, they are locked back there for now. Might I request again that you make a trip to the medical bay? You need to have your wounds seen to." The AI let his worry show on his face.

Leonard tapped his fingers on the armrest of the chair. He stared at the AI then finally let out a long breath. He stood up and moved down the ramp from the captain's platform. He stopped for a moment and looked over at the working engineer. "You going to be all right here alone, Todd?"

The engineer looked away from its task and let out a series of high-pitched noises. It waved its tentacles toward the rest of the panels. Leonard paused for a moment and then shrugged. "I guess that means yes."

Leonard walked out of the bridge and through the halls. He'd been on Covenant ships before, but those had been Separatists. He'd even been on Loyalist ships in the past, but something seemed odd about this one. He couldn't even place his finger on what was so off about it. The walls looked like the walls of any other Covenant ship. The halls were filled with the soft purple light that only seemed to feel alien to him when it was on a Loyalist ship.

The medical bay was larger than would be expected. The elites had never been big on being patched up or healed, though it seemed most of the other Covenant species were willing to take the assistance. Leonard found Oran patching up Brandon. Alpha had put the Covenant machinery to work producing medication that could be used for humans. Oran was finishing up the skin graft and hormonal therapy on Brandon's legs.

Brandon spotted Leonard and tried to stand up, but Oran glared at him to keep him seated. The ODST saluted, flashing a somewhat excited smile as he spoke. "Sir, I'll be back to fully ready to fight in a matter of hours."

Leonard returned the salute. "Good to hear. We might need fighting soldiers soon if those honor guards get restless. Can you find the time to patch me up a little, Doc?" Leonard stopped and shook his head. "I mean Professor. Not Doc, definitely not Doc."

Brandon raised an eyebrow. "Why not Doc?"

"Because Doc is a pointless, useless, annoying baby." Grif sat up from where he'd been lying on the floor.

"Why were you lying on the floor?" Leonard frowned at him, watching the orange soldier stretch.

"Because I'm lazy, and the Professor is going to check me over for radiation effects." Grif grinned and leaned against the wall.

"Be careful when you check him out, Professor. Simmons might get jealous if you get too handy with his boyfriend." Leonard ignored the sounds of protest from the lazy soldier and looked around the bay. "Where're the soldiers that aren't on patrol?"

"Allison collected them and they headed to the ship's weapon locker to see what they could get. Best to have weapons in a fight and we're low on ammunition." Oran motioned to Brandon and he stood up off the table. The marine flexed his legs and nodded. "Thanks, professor."

"You all set to go?" Leonard asked. Brandon nodded. "Good, then get your ass to the armory and help Allison out with inventory. I want a complete list of every weapon we have on this ship and how much ammunition." Brandon saluted and marched out of the medical bay.

Leonard turned and walked over to Oran. "Can you patch me up a bit?"

"Depends on how much patching you need. Remove your armor." Oran motioned to the examination table, or at least what she was using as an examination table. Leonard was pretty sure it was just a table to the Loyalists. Leonard removed the scratched-up, dented, and burnt armor and lay down on the table. He flinched as the burnt part of his back touched the cold metal, sending a new wave of pain through him.

The Professor turned her attention to a data screen. She'd rigged it to her personal data pad, which she could then link up with the neural interfaces at the base of Leonard's skull. She furrowed her brow. "Was this body cloned?"

Leonard frowned as he thought. "I believe so. Though the Director said he had used a different form of cloning. He said it was more of like puzzle cloning. I don't really know."

"Most clone bodies that are full bodies don't survive long. They have a history of getting ill and dying. This body is in good shape, except for some old injuries and your current fresh ones." Oran sounded impressed.

"Well, the Director knows what he's doing. He made me after all." Leonard shrugged his shoulders and flinched as it scraped some of his burns against the table. "Can you just patch up my back? It's making things annoying."

"I can patch it up but without proper equipment I can't fully heal you or any of your team." Oran let out a frustrated sigh. "I really need better equipment. This stuff is junk."

"Well, you won't have to worry about that for long. We're on our way to a base which will have proper equipment. Once we're there we can also have a proper look at that thing. You find out anything about it?" Leonard felt her start to work on him. He felt a pang of pain in his back before it numbed completely.

"Not really." Oran busily worked on him as she spoke. "I'm a bit afraid to actually use any of the tools here to try to look at it. Alpha said the AI wasn't completely gone. If it finds out, it might try to send a signal to the Loyalists and we'd be back in trouble."

"Good; I don't want to risk having to deal with them until we have to." Leonard flinched slightly as pain shot through his leg and then eased and numbed. He sat in silence, listening to Grif snore in the corner while the professor worked on him. His mind ran through possible scenarios and what they should do, but mostly focused on their destination. KUKRI base was the last place he wanted to be going at the moment, but they had no choice. It would mean that he would have to confront—

Oran patted Leonard's arm, pulling him out of his thoughts. "You're good to go. Well, as good to go as you can be for now." Oran took a step back and Leonard sat up. He swung his legs over the side of the table and stood up. His back didn't hurt as much and the pain in his leg was gone. He could still feel his chest hurting, but not enough to be a problem.

"Thank you, Professor. Now you might want to see to the potato growing on your floor." Leonard motioned to Grif, who was curled up, almost looking like a spud, on the floor. Oran groaned and Leonard laughed as he walked out of the med bay.

"Alpha, how long until we reach the base?"

"Five minutes, Sergeant." Alpha paused for a moment. "I hate Covenant slipspace."

"I bet you do. You told me it was going to be an hour only twenty minutes ago." Leonard frowned as he made his way back to the bridge. When he reached it, Allison and Steve were waiting for him. "Well, at least I don't have to go looking for you two."

The two soldiers stood and saluted. Allison moved up the ramp behind Leonard and stood at the side of the captain's chair. "Sadly, sir, we don't really have good news. There was very little in the armory. Only plasma pistols and a few spikers. This ship is rather under-stocked considering that it has a prophet on board."

Leonard sat down, nodding. "Well, the Loyalists are running low on supplies due to them being cut off from everything. I bet most of their good weapons are back closer to the prophet, where we can't get them."

"Exiting Slipspace," Alpha announced.

"Four minutes early," Leonard muttered. He looked over at Todd, who had floated up to him, making a series of noises and flailing its tentacles around. The front screen switched from the black nothingness of slipspace to the image of a space station.

"Sir, what is that?" Allison stared at the complex station. The solid gray metals that made up the three large sections of the station were connected by blue tinted walkways, pipes, and tubes.

"That is KUKRI base." Leonard sighed and stared at the base.

A com channel opened up and the familiar swooping eye-like symbol of F.L.I.S.S. appeared on the corner of the screen. "Greetings, Sergeant Church. Welcome home."

~End Chapter 21~


	22. Reunion

Cobalt army Chapter 22

Leonard stood in the bay of the ship, staring out into the darkness of space. A pelican appeared and angled toward the hanger. Alpha dropped the door and the ship eased its way in, coming to a soft landing.

Steve frowned at his Sergeant. "What's got you so unhappy, sir?"

"I know these people. I don't like these people. I don't want to see these people." Leonard scowled as the rear of the pelican opened up. Soldiers filed out, clad in ODST helmets and Mark VI armor. Several other soldiers moved out. An elite in red and silver acetic armor moved into the hanger, glancing about. A large teal-armored bulky elite followed behind her. A soldier in tan and lavender HAYABUSA armor sauntered out of the pelican, moving to stand beside the elite. A third soldier in blue and yellow EOD armor moved into the hanger and then looked back, nodding to the other two and motioning to a final person inside of the ship.

A final person moved out of the pelican. Unlike the other members of the group, this person wore no armor. His hair was grayed with age and he carried a steel cane. He wore a cleanly-pressed uniform, which indicated he was a part of ONI. The man waved off the soldiers as they tried to gather around him. The man turned to the gathered ODST. He moved over to them, looking them over. A few of them shifted a bit uneasily under the scrutiny. Finally, he spoke. His voice was thick with a southern accent "It has been a long time, Alpha. I am glad to see that you haven't completely destroyed that body."

Leonard frowned at the man. "I'm not Alpha."

The man frowned and shook his head. "You show such hostility to our kindness. I do hope you have a good reason for coming here. This is a highly restricted location, even for you."

"I wouldn't come here without a good reason. I want to be here as much as you want me here." Leonard glanced at his soldiers. They were all staring at him. He sighed. "What?"

"You look a lot like him." Allison looked between the two men. "Who the hell is he?"

Leonard sighed. "That's because he is the director of Project freelancer."

Oran took a step forward and smiled at the Director. "Then you must be Doctor Church. It is an honor to meet you. I've heard rumors of the freelancer projects and all that it has done. I'm professor Oran."

"I honestly have no real concern as to who you are." The Director frowned at her. "I am well aware of the impact and good my work as done."

"Now who's being hostile?" Leonard raised an eyebrow and the Director turned to him. "We come bearing a peace offering." He turned to Oran. "Give it to him."

Oran fished into her pocket and pulled out the crystal object. She held it out to the Director, who eyed it. "Ohio." The acetic elite moved over to his side. The Director motioned to the object and the elite took it.

Oran eyed the elite suspiciously. "Are you sure you want to give it to one of them?"

"I assure you that my agents are trained properly and that Ohio is perfectly capable of handling this duty." The Director turned to look at the large elite, who had moved over to them as well. "What is it, Agent Florida? You were not called on."

"Florida? Seriously?" Leonard tilted his head as he looked at the large elite. "How'd you even get mixed up in Project Freelancer?"

"Agent Florida has always been a part of our project. It caused him, it takes care of him. As for the name…We ran out of states." The Director stared at Florida for a few seconds. "Very well then, go ahead."

Florida moved forward to stand before Tucker. He knelt down a bit so that he could look the teal soldier in the eye. "Hello, mother." The elite's voice was deep and echoed slightly. He then turned to look at Leonard. "Hello, Uncle."

Tucker raised an eyebrow at the alien. "Do I know you?"

"You've got to be kidding me." Leonard groaned and moved over to Florida's side. He put a hand on the elite's arm. "You don't recognize the demon spawn of you being raped by an alien?"

"Junior?" Tucker's mouth fell open as he realized who the alien was.

"Wow, he got big." Donut smiled at the alien. "I bet you are so proud of him."

Tucker looked between Florida and Ohio. "Damn, I apparently make great alien babies."

"Actually, it's all Chbl 'Tibadee." Church sighed as Tucker raised an eyebrow. "Crunchbite, Apples, whatever the hell you want to call him. The alien that raped you."

"That thing had a name?" Tucker turned to look at Junior, then took a step back away from the large alien. "Why is he just staring at me?"

"Cause in their species when they reach adulthood they eat their mothers." Leonard moved past the alien and nodded to the freelancers and toward the pelican. "Your crew is free to strip this thing clean. Maybe you can learn something new."

"I plan to." The Director motioned to the ODST armored soldiers and they moved off through the hanger and into the deeper parts of the ship. "Ohio, take the others and retrieve the prophet."

The red-and-silver armored elite nodded and moved off, the three other freelancers falling into line behind her. Leonard watched them leave before he moved into the rear of the pelican. It was no longer something that he had to worry about. His soldiers filed in behind him, followed by the Director and the civilians and Blood Gulch soldiers.

The ride was quiet, an air of odd tension in the air. Even the normally chatty Reds and Blues remained quiet. Leonard sat in his seat, staring across the ship at the Director, who seemed to be staring back. The man's eyes were trained on Leonard but his stare was unfocused, as though he was looking through Leonard.

The pelican slowed and jerked a bit as it landed. The rear opened and the Director stood. "There is a medical team at the ready for you and your team. Alpha may have free run of the system. All restricted files are not in the main database so he has no need to worry of getting into something he shouldn't." The Director moved out of the rear of the pelican where there were more soldiers waiting, and several more freelancers. He stopped at the base of the ramp and looked back. "And Sergeant, come and see me in my lab after the medics are done with you."

Leonard stood up and nodded. Technically the Director was of a higher rank than him, so he didn't really have a choice. He moved through the pelican and the rest of his troops moved out with him to the waiting medical team.

Leonard sat on the medical table, waiting for the doctor to get back. He'd been checked over, had a few injections and a bit of needle work to sew up the hole in his leg. He'd been told he was treated with some sort of steroids to increase the healing of his burns, but as long as they healed, he didn't care what it was. The only problem he actually had was that they had taken his armor, leaving him with nothing but a thin paper gown. He hated those things. They made him feel vulnerable to threats, particularly after so much time in his armor.

"Oh, looks like I got lucky." Leonard frowned as he looked up at the sound of Tex's voice. "They haven't given you any clothing?"

Leonard sulked a bit. The last person he wanted to deal with right now was Tex. "The medics haven't returned yet since they finished."

Tex moved over and sat down beside him on the table. "Why don't you send your little Corporal to get you some?"

"Don't think Steve would do it. Likely he's still got medics poking and prodding him." Leonard fought the urge to move away. He shouldn't feel threatened around Tex, at least he hoped he shouldn't. "What do you want anyway?"

Tex didn't reply right away. She watched as a couple of technicians moved past the window and then out of sight. "I'm wondering if we can trust these people. The Freelancer Program hasn't exactly been nice to us in the past."

"Tex, the program has always been good to you. It gave you everything, did everything it could to protect you." Leonard sighed and stared down at the floor. "Sure, it's done things that aren't particularly nice to me, but that's the past. In short, yes, we can trust them, but don't trust that the other freelancers will be nice. They start picking on the civilians or you, then come tell me and they'll do what I order them to. They annoy my old team or the Reds, you can either pop some popcorn and watch, or feel free to join in, whichever."

"What about your soldiers? What's going to happen to them?"

"I'm not rejoining the program. We're only here because we had no other options. The project doesn't even need me anymore. Since the damn trial, it's supposed to be disbanded. When a frigate gets here, my team will get on it, and it will take us back to the battlefield." Leonard stared out of the window. "If I were you, though, I'd ask if they had a position for me here."

Tex raised an eyebrow. "And why would I do that? You aren't too eager to go back to working for the project, so why should I be?"

"Cause it's either that, or continue to work with the idiots."

Tex stood up. "I'm going to go see if they have any job openings." She moved to the doorway and stopped before she left. She looked back at him for a moment. She hesitated, as though to tell him something and then thinking better of it, moving out of the door.

Leonard let out a long breath. That had gone better than he had expected. At least she hadn't hit him. He sat up a bit as the medic returned with a set of clothing and a datapad. "So what's the news?"

"You're all set to go. I've got a new set of clothing, and Alpha can direct you to the quarters in which you and your team have been placed."

Leonard nodded and grabbed the clothing, quickly getting dressed. "Any word on when my armor will be repaired, or when a ship will come to pick us up?"

"Sorry, sir, but I don't have access to that information." The Medic checked over the data on the pad and nodded. "You're free to go."

Leonard moved out of the room and down the hallway to the closest terminal. "Alpha." The blue hologram appeared, smiling slightly. "I need directions to the Director's lab."

"Gladly, Sergeant. It's right down the hallway—take a right three hallways down, and it's the door at the end of the hallway." Alpha tugged on his uniform, as though to remove some unseen wrinkles. "I have to say, it feels good to get out of that stuffy armor."

"Wish I could feel the same way." Leonard turned and moved down the hallway, following Alpha's directions.

He came to a clean white door and placed his hand on the biometric scanner to the right of the door frame. His hand was scanned and a green light flashed. "Voice print verification." F.I.L.S.S. instructed.

Leonard frowned at the disembodied voice. "Sheila, just let me in."

The door slid open and Leonard moved inside, quickly glancing around. The walls were all white, while lights of green, red, and blue illuminated most of the room. The colors flickered as figures and data ran across the screens. Leonard didn't really know what they were studying, or what it all meant. He moved through the lab, stopping partway in, turning to look at the device, hovering in a containment field. He moved toward it, as though drawn toward it by some unknown force.

"I wouldn't touch it." Leonard snapped back to reality and looked back at the Director as he moved over to stand beside him. "It's very sensitive. Move it wrong and it might set me back months in opening it."

Leonard looked back to the object. He wasn't even sure why he'd gone over to it. "What is it?"

"It's a capture unit." The Director's voice was heavy with what Leonard could only identify as regret.

Leonard wondered where it had come from. He'd never seen an agent using anything like it. He remembered hearing something about a recovery unit, and something about an AI. He frowned at the seed shaped equipment. "Are they in there?"

"I'm afraid so. I have yet to stabilize it enough to release them." The Director turned and started to walk back over to his table. "Unfortunately, your new discovery has pulled me away from that project."

"Have you figured out anything about it?" Leonard didn't move from where he stood, still staring at the unit.

"Not yet, though from your account it didn't sound like it acted like the crystal from Reach. No slipspace changes." The Director shook his head. "It's not natural though, I just need time, that's all."

"When will a ship be arriving to remove my troops?" Leonard pulled himself away from the unit, turning and walking toward the Director. If he stared at the equipment much longer he felt like he'd go mad.

"Want to leave so soon?" The Director glanced over at Leonard. "I've called for a ship and it will be here in sixteen days. So almost two weeks." Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that's right. You weren't there for that. You were 'dead'." The director shook his head. "They really are the worst soldiers we could get."

"Why did you put Tex with them? Seems like the opposite of keeping her safe." Leonard leaned against the table, crossing his arms.

"I didn't put her here. I don't have the authority to locate soldiers any more. I only control this station, and those that are on it." The Director didn't try to hide how bitter he still was over having been torn from power.

Leonard's gaze once more returned to the unit. He tried to look away, tried to keep himself focused on the conversation, but he was finding it hard.

"It would be the final part. With it there would only be one. Would you want that?" The Director turned to look at Leonard, waiting for his answer.

"A part of me would, but I'm not sure. I like being human." Leonard frowned at his own confusion. "I just don't know."

"Well, we'll cross that hurdle when it comes." The Director turned back to the crystal. "You should get some rest. The down side of being human is that you have to sleep."

Leonard nodded, moving away from the table. He stopped, glancing back at the unit one last time before forcing himself to leave the lab. He got directions from Alpha and headed to his team's temporary barracks.

End Chapter 22


	23. R & R

Cobalt Army Chapter 23

Leonard was already hating being stuck on the base. It was bad enough that it was in space, no cities or anything to go to, but on top of that the freelancers seemed to be following, staring at him when he entered the room. Right now Ohio and Michigan were switching shifts , keeping an eye on him. He didn't so much think it was that they didn't trust him, as they seemed more than willing to bow to his will. He supposed it was more out of loyalty, or some way that the AIs might have messed them up.

He wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing, having lost count of how many reps he had done. "What am I at?" His gaze turned to the freelancer standing over him.

"You are at 97, sir." Ohio was prepared to grab the weights. "Only three more reps to go." Leonard did the three reps and the elite grabbed the bar, moving the free weight up onto the rack. "Would you like me to prepare some other machine for you?"

Leonard thought for a moment and then shook his head. "No thanks, Ohio. I think I'm done for the day. I think I'll hit the showers and then see if the Director has anything he might need my help for." Leonard sat up, stretching a bit. He took the towel when Ohio offered it to him. He wiped the sweat from his brow and then put the towel around his neck. Leonard stood up and moved toward the locker room. As Ohio moved to follow he stopped. "I think I can handle this next part on my own." He put a hand on Ohio's shoulder and he could feel her staring at him. "Why don't you go get some rest, or maybe something to eat?"

Ohio hesitated but bowed before she left the gym. He watched her leave, feeling a bit bad. He wondered if she had taken it as he didn't want her around. Really she was quiet, so he didn't mind when she would follow him around, but he really didn't need any help showering.

Leonard made his way to the locker room, quickly stripping and moving into the shower. He stood under the warm water, letting it ease away the fatigue that he felt. They had been on the station for fifteen days. It had been boring, and annoying for Leonard. He was spending most of his time trying to avoid the blood gulch soldiers, though he had spent a bit of time with Simmons and Grif, since the two of them seemed to be the least annoying. His soldiers had been restless, and he had felt the same. He wanted to get back to fighting, but they only had one more day to wait.

What was really annoyed by was Tex. She had been helping the Director since he'd told her she should find a position with the program. The way she seemed to stick to him like she was his shadow. He saw the looks that the Director would give her, and he knew that he was remembering the Allison that he had once loved, memories of who Leonard had created Tex from. He didn't understand why, but he was so bothered by it. He had Allison, why did he care what Tex did or how close she got to the Director?

He moved out of the showers before quickly changing into the fatigues that had been provided for them in their lockers. He had just finished getting dressed when Allison entered the locker room. "Aw, looks like I'm too late for the show." Allison smirked at him as she moved over to her own locker. "Too bad, we could have had some fun."

Leonard shut his locker and turned to her. "You need to stop talking like that Allison. We'll be going back into combat soon and we can't do that kind of thing."

Allison looked over her shoulder at him. "I know that. I just thought that we'd enjoy the last day we have like this. I was just trying to enjoy it."

Leonard shook his head. "No you weren't, and I know that unless we stop now, you're going to continue it when we get back to combat and it will be harder there then it is to stop now. I don't want to hear any more of those kinds of jokes until we get off this damn station and onto the frigate."

Allison frowned at him. "Yes, sir." She turned back to her locker and started to put away her boots and grab her towel.

Leonard didn't stick around. He knew that she was angry at him for it, but it was what had to be done. They needed to stay focused, and that wasn't going to happen if she still believed that they could carry on as they had been recently. He made his way through the hallways, passing a few freelancers who saluted him. That was still something he was getting used to. Some of the freelancers seemed determined to salute him, even if he was out of uniform.

He stopped at the door only long enough to have F.I.L.S.S let him in. He walked into the lab, finding the Director fiddling with the crystal while Tex was sitting to the side, reading over some numbers. Tex looked up for a moment but as soon as she saw him she looked back down. Leonard frowned, confused by her actions. Was she trying to avoid him? He pushed the thought to the side and moved over to the Director.

"Alpha, what brings you to my lab?" The Director pulled himself away from the crystal, turning to Leonard as he walked over.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not Alpha." Leonard crossed his arms. "I wanted to see if you have made contact with the frigate." Leonard leaned up against the table, looking over at the crystal. "And I wanted to see if you had found anything out about that thing."

The Director sighed. "We will not get word from the frigate until it arrives in system, which will not be until tomorrow. As for this thing, I haven't found out a damn thing. It's more complicated than anything that I've ever seen. I will crack it though, you don't need to be worried about that. Shouldn't you go keep your soldiers in line? I don't want them getting in fights with my freelancers again."

"Fine, fine, I'm gone." Leonard turned and started to move out of the room. "Just have Alpha, the actual Alpha, call me when they frigate contacts you."

The Director huffed at the instructions. They were constantly fighting for who was in charge. It was odd, fighting with himself, but Leonard was used to having to fight to be the leader. "Allison, would you bring me those numbers." Leonard was surprised as Tex got up. When had they gotten on first name terms?

Leonard moved out of the laboratory, his mind going over the unhappy feeling in him. He couldn't help but come to the conclusion that he was jealous of the Director. It was an odd feeling. He was basically jealous of himself. He also didn't understand why it was that he was jealous. He had a beautiful, strong woman with Allison, so why was it that he cared about Tex. Was it simply because he had created her? He had made her from memories, and he remembered her loving him. Though, if he thought of it he and the Director weren't really the same person. Maybe Tex had changed just as he had. Though that didn't seem to follow with the information about smart AI. Their personalities are always set in stone, they don't change. Maybe, somehow, everything that had happened had made them different. Perhaps the Freelancer Project had stumbled on something big, but just didn't know it. Leonard made a note to bring this up in the future with the Director. Or maybe he shouldn't, if he did then would the Director bring him back, use him once more for the project. He really didn't like the idea of that.

Leonard raised his hand so that he could look at it. He felt something telling him that he should go back, go back to the lab. He was sure it was the capture unit. He'd felt like it had been calling him since he'd first seen it. It brought up so many questions. He liked being human, flesh and bone, but he was feeling an odd longing to once more be the Alpha AI, though he had no idea what that really meant. He didn't remember ever actually being the Alpha. He wondered then, why did he feel like he missed it.

Leonard entered the commons area and was surprised by what he saw. Steve, Lorie, Keith, and Natalie were sitting at a table playing poker with Michigan and California. He turned to his right where Jessica was talking to Rhode Island. He frowned at that as he realized that Jessica was wearing a Freelancer uniform with the name Carolina stitched onto the breast.

Leonard moved over to the two women, looking down at them. "What's going on?"

"Just giving the new Carolina here a quick rundown of what she'll probably be into." Rhode Island was grinning. "I think she'll do fine. I have to say, sir, you did a nice job recruiting some new soldiers for us."

"I didn't bring her here so that she could be a freelancer. I brought her here because we had to." It was a bit of a lie but Leonard was sure that she wouldn't be able to tell. Really, he had brought Jessica to the station, thinking she could be a soldier. Though he would admit that freelancer was not what he had expected.

"From what she's told me I have a lot to live up to. I mean, she says that Carolina was the best. I don't know if I'll be able to live up to that." Jessica was obviously worried. Carolina had been the best, and it would be hard to fill her shoes.

Leonard reached over, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You'll do just fine, Carolina." There was nothing he could do to change her mind, or take her out of the project if she'd already decided she wanted to do it. If she was going to take part, he could at least encourage her to do well. That was when Leonard noticed the young man sitting to the side. "Oh, pull the stick out of your ass, Richard. Be happy for your sister."

"Why don't you back off? Your sister wasn't just basically abducted, lost her name, and became a soldier." Richard scowled unhappily.

Jessica didn't seem to be paying any attention. She was looking up at Leonard, stunned. He raised an eyebrow, feeling rather awkward. "You called me Carolina." Leonard inwardly cursed. He hadn't even realized it.

"See, the Alpha approves, even approves of the state name. Welcome to the freelancer family, Carolina." Rhode Island grinned happily.

"Just make sure you don't end up like the last Carolina," Leonard warned.

"What happened to the last Carolina?" Jessica turned to Rhode Island for answers.

Rhode Island smiled, reassuring the new freelancer. "You don't need to worry about that. Things went wrong with her AIs, but that can't happen to you. We aren't using AI any more. Personally, I never saw them as being all that important."

"Of course you didn't, you never got an AI. You were never supposed to get one." Leonard huffed at her. "You didn't get equipment either."

"Yeah, well that must have all been part of the project. At least I can handle not having one. I didn't go crazy like that bitch, South." Rhode Island crossed her arms. "Really, I don't want another person's thoughts in my head."

Leonard could hear the freelancers playing poker shift uncomfortably. "Honestly, if I weren't sort of the same as Alpha, I probably would have hated having him in my head." Leonard looked over at the freelancers. "Don't know how you two did it." The two freelancers shrugged and Leonard let it go. He jumped a bit as he realized that there was someone standing beside him. "Damn, Ohio, don't do that."

Ohio took a step away. "I am sorry, sir. I was wondering if you needed anything."

"For the last time, you don't have to follow me around and do everything for me. Why don't you go make sure that Michigan doesn't lose all of his money to Lorie?" Ohio hesitated before she did as Leonard ordered. He sighed and moved over toward one of the couches.

The lights flickered and Leonard felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He looked around and was surprised to find all of the freelancers looking at him. He froze for a moment, realizing that they were all treating him like he was the one in charge. He decided he had to take action, moving over to a terminal. "F.L.I.S.S., what's going on?"

The familiar eye icon of the Freelancer control AI appeared. "There has been an odd energy spike from the Director's laboratory."

Leonard turned. "Lorie, Keith, Ohio, Michigan, with me." He moved out of the room, hearing the steps of the others racing behind him as he made his way through the hallways. He reached the Director's lab, finding that the door wouldn't open.

He was about to think up a new way to get in when Ohio moved forward. The energy blade flared to life and she cut through the metal with ease. With one great kick she sent the metal chunks falling to the ground. "Director?" Ohio moved through the doorway and ran to the Director.

The Director placed a calm hand on the elite's neck. "I am fine, Ohio. There is no reason to worry. At least not about me." He turned to Leonard. "We have much bigger things to worry about." Leonard was about to ask more when the Director continued. "That crystal thing sent out a pulse of energy. I don't know how far it went, but if there was anyone interested in it, they know where it is now."

Leonard's mind went to work. The crystal had basically given away their location to the Covenant. He moved over to a terminal where Alpha appeared. "Monitor the system. If there are any slipspace ruptures, I want to know about them, tell all the soldiers, freelancer and ODST, to prepare for combat, and get my armor ready. He turned to the other soldiers. "If they come, I want us to be ready. Lorie, go to the armory and be sure that everyone gets a bit of everything. Ohio, go kill the prophet. He's no use to us now and he might only cause problems, giving away things he shouldn't. Michigan, gather the freelancers. Make sure that all of them find a way to get a link up to Alpha in the main system. He will be able to allow them to use their equipment. Keith, go to the laboratory with the armor and see if any of the techs can outfit any of our armor with the extra equipment."

The soldiers all nodded, running off to do as they were ordered. "I never could have given orders like that." Leonard turned to look at the Director as the old man spoke. "You are not the same Alpha I knew."

"For the last time. I am not Alpha. I am Staff Sergeant Leonard L. Church." He turned to Tex. "Go get your armor. I'm putting you on duty. Keep him alive." He motioned to the Director. She nodded and he moved out of the laboratory to get to work.


	24. All things must end

Cobalt Army chapter 24

It felt good to be back in his armor, though he had to admit he was a bit annoyed. They hadn't had the proper modified ODST equipment to fix all of their armor. It was a bit odd to be back in the old Mark VI armor. It was still the same gray color with cobalt highlights. He'd been told that there had been equipment added to it and as long as he had Alpha he'd be able to use them.

"This is a much too small space." Alpha wasn't trying to hide his displeasure at being trapped in the armor again. "All systems are green. I seem to be able to work 90% of your equipment."

"Wait, there's 10% that you can't work?" It struck Leonard to think that the AI couldn't control everything. He mentally slapped himself. He had to remember that Alpha wasn't really a full AI like they all thought he was.

"I don't have Pi so I won't be able to use the radar jammer that those idiots equipped." There was a pause and Alpha spoke again. "It's a rather useless piece of equipment for us anyway."

"Agreed, we can do without. Can you allow my soldiers to also use what they've been given?" Leonard grabbed a shotgun from one of the racks and an assault rifle. They likely wouldn't have much use for a sniper rifle though he felt oddly naked without one.

"The rest of the soldiers were not given any equipment. I can't run it for them so it would have been a waste. The freelancers at this base though, well most of them, do have equipment and AI to run them." Alpha appeared standing beside Leonard. He stood at his full height, almost as tall as Leonard but the armor gave him a few inches over the image. "I had not realized so many AI hadn't been taken by Maine."

"Well any AI you don't have in there must have been spared. You and I both know that he cleaned out the databanks at the storage facility." Leonard grabbed ammunition and grenades. "So, how many freelancers we got?"

"We have six in total, five with equipment. That is of course not counting in Carolina as she hasn't been trained and there for is basically useless. Not as useless as the guys from Blood Gulch, but I'm counting them as worth less than the furniture on board this station." Alpha's image turned to Leonard. "I'm getting readings of slip-space ruptures in system." Leonard stopped what he was doing to hear out the report. "There are two, four, no seven loyalist cruisers heading toward the station."

Leonard froze at the words. He felt his blood run cold. "You haven't gotten any signal from the frigate?" Alpha shook his head. "Well then we can't stand and fight. If we do then we'll just be killed." Leonard moved off, making his way through the base. He moved to the main bridge and found the Director and freelancers already gathered.

The Director turned toward him. "I expect you have heard the news. Seven ships heading toward us at full speed. Right now they are moving through normal space, but you and I both know how they attack."

"They might attack different considering this isn't a planet or a ship, it's a station." Leonard didn't really believe that. Any moment the ships would go through slip space and arrive right on the station's front step. Leonard looked around at the freelancers and ODST. "We can't fight even one cruiser let alone seven. We have _Reborn Salvation_ which is our only way off of this base in one piece. I want everyone evacuated to it. Enact Cole Protocol immediately and move everything that's not bolted down to the cruiser."

The staff moved to do as they had been ordered. A number of them set to deleting all of the data while the Director led the way to the lab. Leonard assigned his soldiers and the freelancers to moving equipment to the pelicans. As soon as a pelican was full they left for the alien cruiser.

Leonard stood to the side, making sure that everything was working properly. He watched as the Director handed Tex a case and sent her to the waiting pelican with it. From the way he felt like grabbing it he had to guess it was the capture unit. He was watching Tex when the Director moved over to him.

"You know that they will follow us." The Director's words pulled Leonard's attention to him. "How do you plan on keeping them from doing so?"

"I'm going to activate the self-destruct on the base. It should destroy if not disable most of them which would stop them from following you." Leonard looked around and lowered his voice. "I'll need to draw them in toward the station so I'll need the thing that we found. It's what they want and as long as I set it up that there's a current running through it they'll get a signal and leave you all be."

The Director frowned. He hesitated for only a moment before he handed over the crystal. Leonard slipped it into a pouch on his belt. "I know what my part is. You just do your part and I'll see that I do mine." The Director locked eyes with Leonard, letting him see that he meant it.

Leonard nodded, knowing that he would get it done. "All right, Marines, Freelancers, here's what's going to happen!" The soldiers all turned to look at Leonard as he shouted. "Everyone onto the pelicans. We're heading out now. Everything else will be destroyed by the self-destruct. Move."

The soldiers all snapped to their task. They moved into the pelicans, sitting and strapping themselves in. The director stood at the base of the pelican ramp, Leonard standing beside him. "You sure about this? It's a very dangerous thing to do."

Leonard nodded. "It is what we have to do. We don't have any other options left." He watched as his marines all were seated. "This has to work."

"I'm sure that we'll be able to do it." The Director nodded and stood up moved into the pelican. He looked back at Leonard and then hit the controls on the ramp. The doors to the rear of the pelican started to shut.

"What are you doing?" Allison tried to undo her straps to stop them.

"Ohio, restrain her." The Director didn't look up as he ordered the elite. Ohio, who had been standing as the pelicans were not ideal for her elite body, moved to stop the marine. She held Allison down, keeping her from getting out of her seat as the door shut.

"What are you doing? We can't leave him behind." Steve looked to the Director, waiting for an explanation. "He said the station was going to self-destruct."

"It will, but the self-destruct has to be activated manually. When it is done Sergeant Church will use the longsword interceptor to catch up with us before we enter slip space." The director didn't look up as he spoke. "We are going on ahead." He looked over to the marines. "Why send those below you to do what you yourself are willing to do."

Allison stopped struggling and Ohio moved away from her. She looked across the pelican at Steve and then looked toward the ground. The pelican rumbled to life, lifting up and out of the station. They all sat in silence as they moved toward the cruiser.

Leonard watched as the pelican pulled away and he was left alone. "You know the plan?" He turned and started run through the base.

"Of course I know the plan." Alpha seemed offended by the question. "I am aware, and I agree that this is the best plan."

Leonard reached his destination, the main controls. He opened up one of the controls and pulled out several of the wires. "All right, this is where you come in. Tell me what to do to set this all up." The AI brought up a diagram of what they had planned. "Took you long enough."

"You know, maybe people are right. We are ass holes," Alpha said.

"What do I care what they think of me?" Leonard started to set things up as Alpha had showed him. She hooked up several wires to the crystal and he could see it pulse as the current started to flow through it.

"The signal is being sent out. The ships will pick it up." Alpha's avatar appeared beside Leonard. "I have the self-destruct set up." The AI turned his gaze out toward the open space. He seemed to be looking at the stars. "It's ready for you to activate it whenever you're ready."

Leonard sat down in the large chair at the head of the main consol. "Very good. We'll let them get closer before activating it. What's the status of the others?"

The soldiers moved into the main bridge the Director moving to the main systems. "Fliss, give me the status of the engines."

The engineers all let out high pitched sounds as the pulsing eye appeared on the screens. "Engines are at full power and ready to get us moving. Slip-space drive is ready to be used and I have the hang of the systems. Alpha has given me the information."

The Director sat down in the captain's chair. "Then get us moving."

"Wait, what about the Sergeant? We can't leave without him." Allison moved to the side of the chair. "I won't let you leave without him."

The director didn't look up. "Fliss, get us a vector for getting out of system. Set the engines to full power."

"Sir, my systems are picking up a signal. Sergeant Church has set up the trap. The bases self-destruct has been prepared but not yet activated." Fliss paused for a moment. "Engines responding full power out system. Sir, I can make the trip in system if necessary. The Covenant systems allow such feats."

"Understood Fliss. For now continue on this vector. Jump to slip space when I give the order." The Director leaned back in his chair staring at the main screen. "Fliss, give us visual on the station." The screen changed and became Kukri base. The Covenant cruisers all huddled in, trying to get close. Small figures that could only be phantoms moved toward the base.

Leonard sat watching the doors. "Are they locked?" He checked over his rifle and then set it aside. His eyes returned to the door, waiting.

"Yeah, they're locked. Though I don't know if they'll be able to hold them back." Alpha stood beside him, watching the door as well. "So what is the plan?" His face didn't show any worry but it crept into his voice.

Leonard stood up and activated a selected equipment. The energy blade on his arm flared to life and he started to move toward the door. "Take them all down."

"They're burning through the door. At this point I estimate you'll be a corpse in three minutes. That should be long enough for the getaway."

Leonard nodded. "Let's try to make it four." The door started to burn and something started to hit the metal. It finally gave way and large chunks were sent flying. Grunts poured into the room and were quickly followed by a large number of minor brutes. They roared at the sight of Leonard and the grunts started to fire.

Leonard moved, charging toward them. The blade on his arm sliced easily through the grunts. They fell to the ground, a few of their tanks leaking methane. Leonard rolled to the side as spiker shots hit his shields. He moved to his feet and charged, stabbing his blade through the head of the closest brute. The one to his left swung his fist, trying to hit Leonard, but the marine ducked, grabbing a grenade from the now dead brute's armor. He armed it and reached up, attaching the grenade to the brute's arm. He then slammed his fist to the ground as he was enveloped by the glow of armor lock.

The grenade went off, taking out the brute he'd stuck, one other brute, and injuring another. The injured brute fell easily as Leonard pulled his combat knife from his chest armor and stabbed it into the brute's eye and back into its brain.

He pulled the blade free and froze as he turned to see a hammer heading toward him. The weapon hit him with enough force to send Leonard flying. He hit one of the consoles and the screen broke, sparks flying from the broken components. He hit the ground, shaking his head to try to clear it. A large hand grabbed his helmet, lifting him up. Leonard stabbed the arm with both his energy blade and combat knife but the hand still held him tight.

The chieftain smirked growling something in his own language. The filtered robotic voice of the translator echoed in Leonard's helmet. "I will kill you, demon, and take my prize."

The soldiers and freelancers watched the screen as the cruisers hung close to the base. "Where is the Sergeant? Shouldn't he be heading here now?" Steve looked over to the rest of his team.

Allison looked to the Director. "What's taking him so long?" The Director looked at her and she froze. "What aren't you telling us?"

"None of you even noticed." They turned to look at Tex. She was staring at the screen, her gaze a bit distant. "None of you even realized it, just accepted what he said."

"What are you talking about?" Keith looked to the freelancers and they looked away. "Are we the only people that don't know what you're talking about?"

"I don't know what they're talking about." Tucker looked around. "But then again that's not really a surprise. Can someone just, for once, tell me what is going on without having me guess?"

"There was no longsword in that hanger." Tex still stared at the screen. "An AI made from the mind of the Director of the project. Never ask someone else to do what you can do."

"That means being the first into the fight, the one in danger, the one that gets hurt, and, if need be, the one that dies. The one good trait." The Director looked to the marines for only a second before looking to Tex. There was a strange distant look in his eyes, one of regret and sorrow. "Fliss, prepare the slip space drive."

Leonard smirked behind his visor. "You really think that that's how things are going to go? Then you're even more stupid than you look." He clicked off his outer speakers. "Alpha, are they far enough away?"

The AI's avatar appeared on the screen. He stood up tall, proud. "They're far enough away. They're preparing for a slip space jump."

"Now's the time to jump ship then." Leonard gripped the wrist of the hand holding him. "This is the last chance."

"I may be an ass, but I wouldn't desert myself." Alpha shook his head. "I will stand with you till the end, sir."

Leonard grinned the AI's words. "Good to hear buddy." Leonard reached over, hitting a button on his forearm armor. The words 'Self-destruct activated' appeared on his HUD. Leonard hit the release on his helmet, allowing himself to slip out and hit the ground. He glanced over his shoulder where, on the main screen, a timer flashed that he had thirty seconds left. Thirty seconds, more than was needed.

Leonard surged forward, his shoulder hitting the brute in the stomach. The pack on Leonard's back roared to life and the added force of the jetpack allowed Leonard to tackle the chieftain to the ground. The brute roared and Leonard grabbed the fur on its neck. Leonard stabbed his combat knife as deep as he could into the brute's neck several times, trying to cut his way along the thick fur and skin of the chieftain's neck.

The chieftain reached up, grabbing Leonard's arm that was holding onto the fur. The brute squeezed and Leonard heard his armor crack and then felt the bone break. A scream of pain escaped Leonard's lips as he used more force against the knife. Leonard pulled the knife free and sank it into the brute's neck right below its jaw. He pulled it up a bit and blood seeped from the wound, covering Leonard's hand. The brute's hand released Leonard's arm and with great force slammed into Leonard's face. The Sergeant fell back, hitting the ground. He looked over, tasting blood and slightly aware that it was hard to breath. The hit must have broken his nose.

The brute struggled on the ground but the pool of his own blood. Leonard tried to get to his feet but he was still unsteady. "Alpha, time."

Alpha looked to the human half of him. His hologram moved over to stand beside him. "Fifteen seconds." He knelt down beside Leonard who had managed to sit up. Alpha reached out, putting a hand on Leonard's shoulder. "The ship is far enough out of orbit, and the others are all close enough." He hesitated for a couple seconds. "It has been an honor, sir."

"Wish I could say the same, Alpha." Leonard reached up, touching his broken nose, wincing. "I'd rather say it's been hell."

The group watched as fire spread through the base until it finally spread out into space. The Freelancers stood tall and the marines stood, saluting as they watched the base be destroyed, their leader with it. The fire died down and the remains of the cruisers floated, dead in space.

"Fliss, get us out of here, heading back to human space." The Director closed his eyes and leaned forward in his seat. "Main screen off." The screen flickered off and they were left in silence. The Director stood from the chair. "It will be a long trip back. Get settled in." He moved past the group, heading out of the bridge.

The freelancers followed him. Tucker had to convince Caboose that everything was going to be fine. The reds didn't care all that much and one by one the members of the Cobalt army left the bridge. Allison stood, still staring at the screen.

Steve put a hand on her shoulder and she looked toward him. He led her away, off of the bridge, leaving just Tex sitting, staring blankly. Allison stopped, moving back in and over to the woman. "You going to come with us?"

Tex looked over at Allison, her eyes vacant of any emotion. "I think I need a moment." Allison nodded and left her to sit on her own while they found somewhere to stay on the ship for the trip.

End


	25. Epilogue

Cobalt Army Epilogue

Vermont stood on one side of the door, arms crossed and getting very annoyed. "Are we allowed in yet?" He was getting impatient, and it wasn't fun standing outside while California and Texas argued. He looked over to Michigan who was leaning against the wall in silence. At least he didn't have to worry about him.

The door opened and Vermont took a step back as he found himself face to face with Ohio. The elite took a step back. "We are finished." She moved out of the way and the freelancers moved inside. They all gathered around the center console and looked to the soldier in brown armor. She was still staring at the screen, tapping controls from time to time. "How is he doing?" Ohio moved through the room, moving to stand behind Rhode Island.

"Well the process is a bit harder than we thought. There's an odd fusion and the program can't properly tell what's going on in the core, but he seems to be working things out on his own." Rhody finally turned her attention to the other freelancers. "Congratulations, our little mission wasn't a complete waste of time." She tapped a button and the room filled with soft blue light. The freelancers all stared at the hologram and watched the tangle of blue strings.

"I'm sorry, but that doesn't look like what we're here for." Vermont moved a bit to try to see if he could see more to it but he couldn't. "Is it really our target?"

Rhody nodded. "I honestly don't know enough about AIs to tell you what Alpha's doing, all I know is that he's doing something. I think he might have been damaged by the blast and now he's trying to repair himself since he's in the system. I can't really tell for sure."

"Great, so we have Alpha, but he's doing something and we have no idea what he's doing. We can't do anything to figure out what he's doing, and we don't know if he corrupted or something and is trying to crash this ship into another ship or something." Vermont groaned. "Just great."

"Well, I can think of at least three better things I could be doing then standing around watching a ball of wavy blue lines. I'm out." Texas turned around and moved out of the lab.

"I hate to agree with him, but honestly watching a light show isn't my idea of an interesting activity. I'm going to go check the ONI chatter again, make sure they don't suspect anything." California nodded to the other freelancers and moved out of the room.

Michigan shifted a bit uncomfortable. "Hey, fang-face, you and I still have a chess game to finish." Ohio looked up and Michigan motioned for her to follow him as he walked out of the room.

Ohio followed him, falling into step behind him. "I still don't understand why it is that the horse one moves so silly, or why it is that a stone tower is able to move at all."

The door slid shut behind them and Vermont looked to Rhode Island. "Is there really nothing that we can do? No way to be sure he's really all right? I know they won't voice it, but we all know the Alpha in some way, worked with a part of him. None of us want to see him ruined or unable to be saved."

Rhody shook her head. "We can't do anything. He's been through a lot, and I'm sure that this won't be what takes him down. We just have to have a little faith in him."

"Sorry, Rhody, I'm not really a man of faith." Vermont turned and moved out of the laboratory, leaving Rhode Island standing alone in the glow.

A figure moved up behind Rhody and she looked back at the other freelancer. "Rhody, can you give me a moment." The black armored soldier moved to walk around the hologram.

"Of course, Tex. You are the boss." Rhody turned and moved out of the lab, leaving Tex alone with the Alpha.

Tex stared at the hologram, the light dancing along her reflective faceplate as the strands shifted. She reached up and removed her helmet, tucking it under her arm between her elbow and her hip. "I'm glad you see you again." She reached out toward the hologram and a translucent blue hand reached out to her. Its fingers passed through hers and the goose-bumps spread down her arm. "Welcome back. Leonard."

End


End file.
